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SOCIAL        PROBLEM        DISCUSSION        SERIES 

CHRISTIANITY    AND 
ECONOMIC   PROBLEMS 

FACTS,  PRINCIPLES,  PROGRAMS 

A   Discussion   Group  Text-Book 


Prepared  by 

KIRBY    PAGE,    Chairman  F.   ERNEST  JOHNSON 

LESLIE   BLANCHARD  DAVID  R.    PORTER 

SHERWOOD  EDDY  FLORENCE  SIMMS 

HARRISON  S.   ELLIOTT  OLIVE  VAN  HORN 


for  the  Educational  Committee  of  the  Commission  on 

the  Church  and  Social  Service  of  the  Federal  Council 

of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America 


ASSOCIATION    PRESS 

New  York:  347  Madison  Avenue 
1926 


Copyright,  1922,  by 
F.  Ernest  Johnson 


PRINTED   IN    THE   UNITED   STATES   OF   AMERICA 


H6 


Foreword 

This  book,  the  second  of  the  Social  Problem  Discussion  Series, 
has  a  somewhat  different  form  from  the  first — -"What  is  the 
Christian  View  of  Work  and  Wealth?"  It  contains  a  running  text 
instead  of  reference  material  gathered  from  a  variety  of  sources. 
But  it  is  none  the  less  a  discussion  course.  The  outline  and  the 
manner  of  treatment  have  been  determined  by  the  committee  and 
the  same  kind  of  discussion  has  gone  into  the  preparation  of  the 
course  that  it  is  hoped  to  elicit  by  means  of  it.  The  text  has  been 
written  with  a  view  not  merely  to  stating  facts  or  declaring 
opinions,  but  to  laying  bare  the  issues  and  enabling  the  group  to 
approach  the  problems  involved  in  the  subject  matter. 

On  first  thought  many  of  the  questions  here  dealt  with  seem 
to  be  of  too  technical  a  nature  for  popular  discussion.  What  is 
contemplated,  however,  is  a  moral  appraisal  of  the  situation  pre- 
sented by  industry  in  the  light  of  our  common  heritage  of  ethical 
ideals. 

Suggestions  to  Leaders 

The  leader  will  doubtless  find  himself  serving  the  group  best  if 
he  keeps  as  much  as  possible  out  of  its  way.  He  is  really  the 
chairman  of  a  meeting.  He  should  not  attempt  to  "put  over"  any 
particular  point  of  view,  but  to  see  to  it  that  there  is  fair  discus 
sion.  To  this  end,  he  probably  will  not  wish  to  take  part  himself. 
He  will  have  all  he  can  do  if  he  carries  out  his  duties  as  chairman, 
stating  the  questions,  seeing  that  all  sides  are  represented  in  the 
discussion,  and  summarizing  the  conclusions.  He  may  find  a  black- 
board of  help  if  he  is  handling  a  large  group.  The  chairman  will 
also  need  to  see  that  the  necessary  information  for  intelligent  dis- 
cussion is  before  the  meeting. 


49311.7 


Table  of  Contents 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

1.  A  Divided  World 1 

2.  Poverty — Misfortune  or   Blessing? 7 

3.  Is  Poverty  a  Serious  Problem? 17 

4.  Do  Great  Fortunes  Help  or  Hinder  Social  Progress?  29 

5.  Are  Luxuries  Antagonistic  to  Public  Welfare?      .      .  41 

6.  Does  Modern  Industry  Help  or  Hinder  the  Full  De- 
velopment of  Human  Beings? 54 

7.  Why  Is  There  Not  Enough  to  Go  Around?       ...  65 

8.  How  Can  Industry  Be  Made  to  Produce  More  Goods 

and  Better  People? 74 

9.  What    Changes   in   Control   Would   Alost   Benefit   In- 
dustry?           84 

10.  What  Degree  of  Public  Control  of  Industry  Will  Best 
Promote  the  General  Welfare? 92 

11.  How   Rapidly   Can  a   Christian  Economic   Order   Be 
Achieved? 101 


CHAPTER  1 
A  Divided  World 

The  revolt  against  the  suffering  and  misery  of  the  present  day 
is  world-wide.  A  never-ending  stream  of  protest  is  pouring  from 
our  printing  presses.  Many  of  the  titles  are  significant :  "The  Sal- 
vaging of  Civilization,"  "Social  Decay  and  Regeneration,"  "Chaos 
and  Order  in  Industry,"  "Principles  of  Social  Reconstruction," 
"Proposed  Roads  to  Freedom,"  "The  New  Social  Order,"  "Labor 
in  the  Changing  World,"  "What  the  Workers  Want,"  "The  Cry 
for  Justice."  Books  which  defend  the  present  order  are  also 
appearing.  Such  titles  as  these  are  significant :  "The  Case  for 
Capitalism,"  "A  Defense  of  Wealth." 

The  unrest  and  dissatisfaction  with  things-as-they-are  are  finding 
expression  in  the  utterances  and  actions  of  the  Churches.^  The 
Federal  Council  of  Churches  of  Christ  in  America  has  adopted 
the  "Social  Ideals  of  the  Churches."  The  National  Catholic  War 
Council  has  issued  a  program  of  "Social  Reconstruction."  The 
Central  Conference  of  American  Rabbis  has  issued  a  "Social 
Justice  Program."  Practically  all  the  great  religious  bodies  in 
the  United  States  have  made  pronouncements  dealing  with  the 
present  social  order.  "The  Church  and  Industrial  Reconstruc- 
tion,"2  a  notable  volume  published  by  a  group  of  prominent  church- 
men, devotes  forty-six  pages  to  a  consideration  of  the  "Unchristiiin 
Aspects  of  the  Present  Industrial  Order." 

In  every  quarter  the  present  state  of  affairs  is  being  challenged. 
Especially  do  we  find  the  youth  of  all  lands  .giving  voice  to  their 
dissatisfaction  with  the  old  order  of  things.  Among  old  and  young 
it  is  being  recognized  increasingly  that  at  present  life  is  almost 
intolerable  for  great  masses  of  people.  Others  are  saying  that  the 
present  social  order  is  doomed.  In  this  connection,  Mr.  Lloyd 
George  has  said :  "The  old  world  must  and  will  come  to  an  end. 


*  The  pronouncements  of  the  Churches  are  considered  in  some  detail  in 
Chapter  11  of  this  book. 

'^  Published  by  Association  Press,  New  York  City.     Paper  covers,  $1.00. 

1 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

No  effort  can  shore  it  up  much  longer.  If  there  be  any  who  feel 
inclined  to  maintain  it,  let  them  beware  lest  it  fall  upon  them  and 
overwhelm  them  and  their  households  in  the  ruins."i  Mr.  H.  G. 
Wells  has  recently  said :  "There  are  some  things  that  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  tell  without  seeming  to  scream  and  exaggerate,  and 
yet  these  things  may  be  in  reality  the  soberest  matter  of  fact.  I 
want  to  say  that  this  civilization  in  which  we  are  living  is  tumbling 
down,  and  I  think  tumbling  down  very  fast ;  that  I  think  rapid 
enormous  efforts  will  be  needed  to  save  it."^ 

PRESENT  SITUATION  CAN  BE  CHANGED 

Throughout  the  literature  of  protest  against  the  misery  of  the 
present  day  runs  a  note  of  optimism.  Conditions  can  be  changed. 
These  are  days  of  transition.  If  only  we  have  the  intelligence  and 
the  will,  a  new  and  better  world  may  be  built. 

Perhaps  no  writer  has  sounded  this  note  of  hope  and  triumph 
more  vigorously  than  has  Benjamin  Kidd,  in  these  words:  "We 
are  undoubtedly  living  in  the  West  in  the  opening  stages  of  a  revo- 
lution the  like  of  which  has  never  been  experienced  in  history. 
We  are  witnessing  the  emergence  of  causes  and  the  marshalling  and 
leaguing  of  forces  utterly  unknown  to  textbooks.    They  will  make 

history   for  a  thousand  years  to  come Through  all  the 

stress  of  conflict  in  the  West  there  swells  the  deep  diapason  of  the 
social  passion  calling  for  service,  for  subordinatioh,  for  sacrifice, 

for  renunciation  on  a  scale  unprecedented We  are  watching 

the  assembling  in  the  world  of  the  governing  forces  of  new  eras 

of  history The  ascending  history  of  the  human  race  is 

indeed  nothing  else  than  the  progressive  history  of  the  sacrifice  of 
the  individual  efficient  for  himself  to  the  meaning  of  that  collective 
efficiency  which  is  being  organized  in  civilization  gradually  merging 
in  the  universal.  The  progress  of  humanity  has,  therefore,  over 
and  above  every  other  feature  this  meaning.  It  is  the  epic  of  the 
vast,    tragic,    ennobling,    immortalizing,    all-conquering    ethic    of 

Renunciation Within  the  life  of  a  single  generation  it  can 

be  rhade  to  undergo  changes  so  profound,  so  revolutionary,  so 
permanent,  that  it  would  almost  appear  as  if  human  nature  itself 
had  been  completely  altered  in  the  interval."^ 


'  Quoted  in  Philip  Snowden,   "Labour  and  the  New  World,"  p.  v. 

2  '~The  Salvaging  of  Civilization,"  p.p.  42,  43. 

3  Benjamin  Kidd,  "The  Science  of  Power,"  pp.  3,  4,  41,  51,  112. 

2 


A  DIVIDED  WORLD 

Mr.  H.  G.  Wells  closed  his  series  of  articles  on  the  Washington 
Conference  with  these  words :  "But  I  know  that  I  believe  so  firmly 
in  this  great  World  at  Peace  that  lies  so  close  to  our  own,  ready 
to  come  into  being  as  our  wills  turn  towards  it,  that  I  must  needs 
go  about  this  present  world  of  disorder  and  darkness  like  an  exile 
doing  such  feeble  things  as  I  can  towards  the  world  of  my  desire, 
now  hopefully,  now  bitterly,  as  the  moods  may  happen,  until  I 
die."i 

This  same  note  of  hopefulness  has  been  expressed  by  Dr.  John  A. 
Hutton.  "I  sometimes  think  that  in  a  great,  wholesale  way  we  are 
all  of  us  about  to  make  a  wonderful  discovery.  At  times  it  seems 
to  me  as  though  we  were  on  the  edge  and  moment  of  a  world- 
shaking  revolution  in  thought  and  mood.  For  a  long  time  now 
we  have  been  feeling  our  way  in  a  vast,  unlit  corridor,  contending 
with  others  in  the  dark,  striking  out  at  shapes  which  seem  to  be 
wishing  to  do  us  harm,  when  all  the  time  they,  like  ourselves,  may 
only  have  been  out  upon  their  business,  and,  like  us,  in  the  dark. 
I  sometimes  think  that  in  answer  to  the  cry  of  our  present  distress 
a  light  is  once  more  about  to  shine,  and  by  this  light  we  shall  see 
again  an  open  door,  and  beyond  the  fair  earth  and  sky."^ 

A  DIVIDED  WORLD 

When  we  begin  to  analyze  the  present  situation  in  the  effort  to 
discover  the  chief  causes  of  misery,  we  are  at  once  impressed  by 
the  obvious  fact  that  we  are  living  in  a  divided  world.  All  about 
us  are  vast  chasms.  The  supreme  task  of  this  generation  is  to 
bridge  the  deep  gulfs  which  separate  group  from  group.  Modern 
social  cleavages  are  varied  and  complex.  They  are  not  easy  to 
define,  much  less  easy  to  surmount. 

One  of  the  most  comprehensive  of  these  antagonisms  is  that 
between  races.  We  are  deeply  affected  by  the  color  of  a  man's 
skin,  the  slant  of  his  eyes,  the  shape  of  his  nose,  or  the  curl  in  his 
hair.  One  of  the  most  serious  questions  with  which  we  in  the 
United  States  are  confronted  is  the  so-called  "Negro  problem."  A 
vast  immigration  from  every  corner  of  the  globe  has  thrust  upon 
us  a  complex  and  dangerous  race  problem.  We  hear  of  a  "yellow 
peril"  and  of  "the  rising  tide  of  color."  We  are  constantly  being 
warned  that  the  next  world  war  will  be  a  struggle  between  races. 


'  "Washington  and  the  Riddle  of   Peace,"  p.  312. 
-  "The  Proposal  of  Jesus,"  pp.  98,  99. 

3 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

Then  there  is  the  constant  clash  between  nations.  Eight  years 
of  war  and  the  aftermath  have  made  us  all  too  familiar  with  the 
tragic  seriousness  of  the  struggles  between  nations.  There  is 
another  major  cleavage  in  the  modern  world,  that  betw/een  reli- 
gions. Do  we  not  hear  of  "the  menace  of  Islam"?  Are  we  not 
told  of  the  bitter  resentment  and  even  overt  hostility  with  which 
Christian  missionaries  are  greeted  in  various  parts  of  the  earth? 

The  antagonism,  however,  which  comes  closest  home  to  most  of 
us  and  which  most  seriously  affects  our  daily  lives,  is  the  conflict 
between  classes.  Everywhere  a  terrific  struggle  is  being  waged 
between  employers  and  workers.  In  most  countries  this  conflict 
is  growing  more  intense.  In  our  own  land  we  are  becoming 
increasingly  aware  of  it.  Strikes  and  lockouts  on  a  national  scale 
are  constantly  being  threatened.  Not  only  in  the  basic  industries, 
such  as  coal,  steel,  railways,  packing  houses,  and  building  trades, 
but  throughout  the  whole  of  industry  the  conflict  is  on.  In- 
dustry is  sharply  divided  into  two  camps,  employers  and  workers. 
Organized  business  is  arrayed  against  organized  labor. 

The  situation  is  even  more  complex  than  this.  Each  side  in  turn 
is  divided  into  many  conflicting  factions.  Within  the  ranks  of  the 
employers  a  bitter  struggle  is  being  waged.  Is  it  not  considered 
axiomatic  that  "competition  is  the  life  of  trade"  and  the  corner- 
stone upon  which  modern  business  rests?  Does  not  success  in 
business  depend  upon  the  degree  of  victory  achieved  in  vanquishing 
one's  competitors?  Is  not  bitterness  and  unrestricted  warfare 
inherent  and  inevitable  in  a  system  based  upon  competition  ? 

The  ranks  of  labor  are  even  more  seriously  divided.  Competing 
employers  have  found  it  to  their  advantage  to  unite  against  labor 
and  are  usually  able  to  present  a  united  front  against  the  common 
enemy.  Labor,  on  the  other  hand,  in  spite  of  the  plea  for  soli- 
darity which  is  often  made,  has  not  learned  to  act  unitedly.  Only 
a  fraction  of  labor's  strength  is  ever  marshalled  against  the  solid 
ranks  of  the  employers.  A  bitter  and  unrelenting  warfare  is  con- 
stantly being  waged  among  the  various  factions  within  the  labor 
movement. 

CONSEQUENCES  OF  DIVISION 

As  a  result  of  these  manifold  antagonisms,  humanity  is  losing 
much  vital  blood.  It  is  weak  when  it  might  be  strong.  It  is  poor 
when  it  might  be  rich.  Sufficient  strides  have  been  made  in  me- 
chanical invention  and  the  conquest  of  nature  to  make  it  possible 

4 


A  DIVIDED  WORLD 

for  every  person  to  receive  an  adequate  supply  of  the  material 
necessities  and  comforts  of  life.  And  yet,  because  we  continue  to 
attack  one  another,  most  of  the  human  race  is  still  in  physical 
need. 

Not  only  in  China,  India,  Russia,  and  parts  of  Europe  and  the 
Near  East  are  large  masses  of  the  people  living  in  destitution, 
but  even  in  the  United  States,  the  most  favored  nation  of  the 
earth,  an  appalling  proportion  of  the  population  is  in  dire  physical 
need.  It  was  more  than  thirty  years  ago  that  Jacob  Riis  wrote 
his  notable  volume,  "How  the  Other  Half  Lives,"  but  the  situation 
among  our  poorer  people  is  still  tragic  in  the  extreme.  Thousands 
of  families  never  have  anough  to  eat.  Children  are  deprived  of 
milk  and  other  nourishing  food.  The  supply  of  clothing  is  alto- 
gether inadequate.  Whole  families  are  crowded  together  in  two 
or  three  dingy  rooms.  Health  is  menaced  and  morals  are  en- 
dangered. Mental  and  spiritual  growth  is  stunted.  The  miracle 
is  that  some  families  find  a  measure  of  joy  in  life  even  in  the 
midst  of  sordidness  and  wretchedness.  But  these  are  exceptions. 
As  a  rule,  the  "fruits  of  the  spirit"  do  not  spring  from  such  soil. 
Instead  of  love,  joy,  beauty,  peace,  and  hope,  we  more  often  find 
bitterness,  misery,  squalor,  dread,  fear,  and  despair. 

One  of  the  tragic  consequences  of  the  divided  state  of  mankind 
is  to  be  found  in  its  effects  upon  brotherhood.  It  is  obvious  tliat 
the  spirit  of  brotherhood  is  endangered  by  the  great  gulf  which 
exists  between  the  rich  and  the  poor,  by  racial,  national,  and  class 
struggles,  and  by  the  exploitation  of  the  weak.  The  results  of 
division  upon  brotherhood  are  especially  visible  in  the  Church. 
It  is,  of  course,  impossible  for  the  Church  to  proclaim  with 
maximum  power  the  message  .of  Jesus  so  long  as  its  ranks  are 
divided  by  race,  nationality,  and  class.  These  divisions  constitute 
an  effective  barrier  to  the  progress  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on 
earth  and  are  an  absolute  denial  of  the  prayer  of  our  Lord  "that 
they  all  may  be  one." 

WHAT  CAN  WE  DO? 

No  follower  of  Jesus  can  be  satisfied  with  the  present  state  of 
affairs.  Our  divisions  are  a  source  of  regret  and  unhappiness. 
We  long  for  a  united  world.  What  can  we  do  to  hasten  its 
coming  ? 

The  first  step  is  an  open-minded  examination  of  the  facts  in  the 
case.    It  is  absolutely  essential  that  we  know  the  real  nature  of  our 

5 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

problems.  Only  as  we  know  the  facts  can  we  hope  to  find  a  way 
out  of  our  present  situation.  To  discover  all  the  facts  with  regard 
to  our  complex  problems  is  difficult  indeed.  The  difficulties  are 
made  all  the  greater  because  of  the  social  cleavages  which  separate 
us  from  other  groups.  No  single  group  has  access  to  all  the  facts. 
Each  group  reaches  its  decisions  after  an  examination  of  only  a 
portion  of  the  data.  Our  problem  is  intensified  by  the  hostility 
which  exists  between  different  groups  or  at  best  the  prejudice, 
suspicion,  and  fear  with  which  various  groups  regard  each  other. 
Still  another  factor  increases  our  difficulty,  namely,  the  conscious 
or  unconscious  tendency  to  defend  the  status  quo.  The  mere 
existence  throughout  several  decades  or  centuries  of  a  given 
practice  or  attitude  is  often  the  only  defense  it  needs. 

Prejudice,  passion,  and  the  tendency  to  defend  things-as-they-are 
without  examining  the  ethical  foundations  upon  which  they  rest, 
block  the  way  to  the  discovery  of  the  truth.  Those  persons  who 
are  desirous  of  rendering  their  maximum  contribution  to  the 
building  of  a  better  world,  simply  must  free  themselves  from 
preconceived  notions  and  enter  into  a  sympathetic  and  open-minded 
examination  of  the  facts.  This  is  not  easy  to  do  and  it  requires 
constant  watchfulness  and  effort.  And  yet  this  must  be  accom- 
plished by  leaders  in  various  groups  if  further  chaos  is  to  be 
avoided. 

It  has  been  said  that  "there  is  no  refuge  but  in  truth."  "The 
watchword  of  conduct  that  will  clear  up  all  our  difficulties  is  the 
plain  truth.  Rely  upon  that  watchword,  use  that  key  with  courage 
and  we  can  go  out  of  the  prison  in  which  we  live ;  we  can  go  right 
out  of  the  conditions  of  war,  shortage,  angry  scrambling,  mutual 
thwarting,  and  malaise,  and  disease  in  which  we  live;  we  and  our 
kind  can  go  out  into  sunlight,  into  a  sweet  air  of  understanding, 
into  confident  freedom  and  a  full  creative  life — forever." 

A  mere  knowledge  of  the  facts  will  not  solve  our  problems. 
We  must  have  a  correct  scale  of  values  by  which  the  facts  are 
to  be  tested.  In  succeeding  chapters  we  shall  attempt  to  discover 
the  principles  of  Jesus  that  have  a  bearing  upon  the  problems  under 
consideration.  In  the  light  of  these  principles  we  shall  examine 
specific  problems  and  attempt  to  evaluate  various  programs  of 
action  which  are  being  set  forth  as  ways  of  building  a  better 
world.  In  other  words,  we  shall  endeavor  to  locate  the  sources 
of  division  and  to  discover  paths  to  a  united  world  through  fol- 
lowing in  the  footsteps  of  Jesus. 


CHAPTER  2 
Poverty — Misfortune  or  Blessing? 

POVERTY   AS   A   BLESSING 

Two  conflicting  views  of  poverty  are  current.  According  to 
one  theory  poverty  is  a  blessing,  while  according  to  the  other  it 
is  a  curse.  Obviously  we  cannot  reach  an  intelligent  decision  as 
to  what  should  be  done  about  poverty  until  we  decide  which  of 
these  theories  is  more  nearly  in  accordance  with  the  actual  facts. 

We  are  told  that  "of  all  advantages  which  come  to  any  young 
man,  I  believe  it  to  be  demonstrably  true  that  poverty  is  the 
greatest."  The  persons  who  hold  this  belief  usually  set  forth 
three  advantages  of  poverty.  First,  poverty  is  the  cradle  of 
character.  It  is  contended  that  the  poor  have  fewer  temptations 
than  the  rich.  Financial  inability  is  a  curb  against  riotous  living. 
The  excesses  of  the  rich  are  not  possible  for  the  poor.  Not  only 
does  poverty  afford  exemption  from  many  temptations  to  which 
the  rich  are  susceptible,  it  also  makes  necessary  the  kind  of  effort 
which  is  an  aid  to  the  building  of  character.  The  rich  are  not 
compelled  to  exert  themselves,  whereas  the  poor  are  kept  from 
laziness  by  their  very  poverty. 

According  to  this  view,  the  poor  are  likely  to  possess  stronger 
characters  than  the  rich,  and  so  have  a  better  chance  of  salvation. 
The  writer  of  the  following  words  is  strongly  of  this  opinion : 
"O  ye  children  of  poverty  and  toil,  of  misfortune  and  sorrow! 
God  is  better  to  you  than  ye  know.  Ye  see  but  one  side  of  the 
veil  now,  and  that  is  fretted  with  troubles,  and  dark  with  adversity. 
But  it  has  another  side.  On  that  side  are  angel  faces  and  the  smile 
of  God.  Your  crowns  are  gathering  lustre.  Your  harps  are 
being  attuned  to  sweeter  notes  and  deeper  melodies  of  joy."  This 
point  of  view  has  also  been  expressed  in  these .  words :  "Never 
mind :  if  you  cannot  have  a  piano  on  earth,  you  may  have  a  harp 
in  heaven." 

A  second  advantage  of  poverty  is  often  set  forth :  it  provides 

7 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

the  driving  force  for  achievement.  Poor  boys  have  a  better 
chance  of  rising  to  fame  because  of  the  spur  of  necessity.  Numer- 
ous illustrations  are  cited  of  prominent  citizens  who  were  born 
poor.    We  are  told  that  "poverty  is  the  step-mother  of  genius." 

A  third  advantage  of  poverty,  according  to  this  view,  is  that 
it  brings  happiness.  The  poor  are  compelled  to  work,  and  work  is 
a  blessing.  The  person  who  works  hard  is  not  only  likely  to  be 
in  better  health  than  the  idle  rich;  he  also  has  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  the  results  of  his  labor.  Creation  and  achievement  are 
sources  of  real  joy.  Then,  too,  the  fact  that  the  poor  are  finan- 
cially unable  to  indulge  in  the  vices  of  the  rich  and  consequently 
are  spared  the  sorrows  that  follow  dissipation,  increases  their 
chances  of  being  happy. 

The  advantages  of  poverty  in  this  regard  were  described  by 
the  theologian  Paley  in  these  words :  "Some  of  the  necessities 
which  poverty  imposes  are  not  hardships  but  pleasures.  Frugality 
itself  is  a  pleasure.  It  is  an  exercise  of  attention  and  contrivance, 
which,  whenever  it  is  successful,  produces  satisfaction.  The  very 
care  and  forecast  that  are  necessary  to  keep  expenses  and  earnings 
upon  a  level  form,  when  not  embarrassed  by  too  great  difficulties, 
an  agreeable  engagement  of  the  thoughts.  This  is  lost  amidst 
abundance.  There  is  no  pleasure  in  taking  out  of  a  large  un- 
measured fund." 

The  theory  that  poverty  is  a  blessing  is  reen forced  by  reference 
to  the  example  and  teaching  of  Jesus.  We  are  reminded  that  Jesus 
was  poor,  that  most  of  his  disciples  and  followers  were  poor,  and 
that  many  of  the  most  devout  Christians  through  the  ages  have 
been  poor.  Our  attention  is  called  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
"Blessed  are  ye  poor :  for  yours  is  the  Kingdom  of  God."  "But 
woe  unto  you  that  are  rich!"  "It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go 
through  a  needle's  eye,  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the  King- 
dom of  God."  "And  the  cares  of  the  world,  and  the  deceitfulness 
of  riches,  and  the  lusts  of  other  things  entering  in  choke  the  word, 
and  it  becometh  unfruitful."  "Go,  sell  whatsoever  thou  hast,  and 
give  to  the  poor."  "Take  heed,  and  keep  yourselves  from  all 
covetousness :  for  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of 
the  things  which  he  possesseth."  "Lay  not  up  for  yourselves 
treasures  upon  the  earth." 

Our  attention  is  also  directed  to  the  saying  of  St.  Francis  of 
Assisi:  "Poverty  is  the  way  of  salvation,  the  nurse  of  humility, 
and  the  root  of  perfection." 

One  of  the  values  of  Christianity,  so  we  are  told  by  Wilberforce, 


POVERTY— MISFORTUNE  OR  BLESSING? 

is  that  it  teaches  the  poor  "that  their  more  lowly  path  has  been 
allotted  to  them  by  the  hand  of  God;  that  it  is  their  part  faithfully 
to  discharge  its  duties  and  contentedly  to  bear  its  inconveniences ; 
that  the  present  state  of  things  is  very  short ;  that  the  objects 
about  which  worldly  men  conflict  so  eagerly  are  not  worth  the 
contest ;  that  the  peace  of  mind,  which  religion  offers  indis- 
criminately to  all  ranks,  affords  more  true  satisfaction  than  all 
the  expensive  pleasures  which  are  beyond  the  poor  man's  reach ; 
that  in  this  view  the  poor  have  the  advantage;  that,  if  their 
superiors  enjoy  more  abundant  comforts,  they  are  also  exposed 
to  many  temptations  from  which  the  inferior  classes  are  happily 
exempted ;  that,  'having  food  and  raiment,  they  should  be  there- 
with content,'  since  their  situation  in  life,  with  all  its  evils,  is 
better  than  they  have  deserved  at  the  hand  of  God;  and  finally, 
that  all  human  distinctions  will  soon  be  done  away,  and  the  true 
followers  of  Christ  will  all,  as  children  of  the  same  Father,  be 
alike  admitted  to  the  possession  of  the  same  heavenly  inheritance. 
Such  arc  the  blessed  effects  of  Christianity  on  the  temporal  well- 
being  of  political  communities." 

POVERTY  AS   A   MISFORTUNE 

After  every  favorable  aspect  has  been  mentioned,  there  is  still 
much  to  be  said  about  poverty.  There  is  quite  a  different  story 
to  tell.  Before  we  can  decide  whether  poverty  is  a  blessing  or  a 
misfortune,  we  must  analyze  its  evil  effects  also. 

1.  Sickness.  In  modern  cities  an  inadequate  income  means. an 
insufficient  quantity  and  a  poor  quality  of  food.  Undernourish- 
ment of  children  especially  almost  invariably  accompanies  poverty. 
Poor  families  as  a  rule  do  not  receive  proper  medical  care.  Health 
is  endangered  because  of  neglected  teeth.  The  volume  of  sickness 
is  undoubtedly  much  greater  among  the  poor  than  among  other 
classes.  Especially  is  there  a  higher  death  rate  among  the  children 
of  the  poor.  In  this  connection  the  Federal  Commission  on  Indus- 
trial Relations  said :  "It  has  been  proved  by  studies  here  and  abroad 
that  there  is  a  direct  relation  between  poverty  and  the  death  rate 

of  babies The  last  of  the  family  to  go  hungry  are  the 

children,  yet  statistics  show  that  in  six  of  our  largest  cities  from 
twelve  to  twenty  per  cent  of  the  children  are  noticeably  underfed 
and  ill  nourished. "^ 


^  Senate  Document,  No.  415,  p.  23. 

9 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

2.  Unwholesome  Family  Life.  Poverty  means  bad  housing. 
The  poor  hve  in  unattractive  houses  in  the  most  undesirable  section 
of  the  town  or  city.  Shanties  in  towns  and  slums  in  cities  are 
the  habitations  of  the  poor.  The  degree  of  overcrowding  which 
is  common  among  the  poor  makes  decency  difficult  or  impossible. 
Discord  and  misery  are  more  conspicuous  in  the  homes  of  the 
poor  than  peace  and  happiness.  There  is  little  incentive  to  spend 
one's  leisure  hours  in  such  a  dreary  place  and  consequently  amuse- 
ments and  recreation  are  sought  outside.  The  state  of  the  family 
treasury  allows  only  the  barest  margin  of  expenditures  for  pleas- 
ure. Only  the  cheapest  and  coarsest  kinds  of  amusement  are,  as 
a  rule,  available  for  the  poor.  Such  amusements  are  highly  com- 
mercialized and  more  often  than  otherwise  are  a  grave  menace  to 
morals.  This  unfavorable  atmosphere  of  the  home,  with  commer- 
cialized amusements  as  the  only  alternative,  places  terrific  tempta- 
tions upon  children  and  young  people. 

3.  Mothers  in  Industry.  A  considerable  proportion  of  the 
women  engaged  in  industry  are  so  engaged  because  of  the  inability 
of  the  husband  or  father  adequately  to  support  the  family. 
Poverty  drives  mothers  into  industry.  A  whole  train  of  evil 
consequences  follow  this  step.  The  mother's  health  is  threatened, 
babies  are  born  lacking  vitality,  children  are  left  at  home  un- 
protected and  allowed  to  contract  vicious  habits,  men's  wages  are 
lowered,  and  employers  are  encouraged  to  pay  men  less  than  a 
living  family  wage ;  home  life  is  hopelessly  shattered. 

4.  Child  Labor.  Poverty  in  the  home  is  responsible  for  a 
considerable  percentage  of  child  labor.  Dire  necessity  drives 
children  out  of  school  and  into  industry  at  the  earliest  legal  age. 
Blind-alley  jobs  with  no  possible  future  in  them  are  taken  because 
of  the  need  of  cash.  Lacking  in  training,  such  children  have  little 
hope  of  ever  being  able  to  earn  more  than  a  bare  living.  Child 
labor  has  vicious  consequences  for  the  health,  mentality,  and  morals 
of  the  children  so  engaged. 

5.  Ignorance  and  Low  Mentality.  The  highest  degree  of 
illiteracy  and  the  lowest  degree  of  intelligence  are  found  among 
the  very  poor.  It  is  no  adequate  explanation  to  say  that  such 
people  are  poor  because  of  low  intelligence.  Ignorance  is  both  a 
cause  and  a  consequence  of  poverty.  The  unwholesome  environ- 
ment of  the  poor,  the  anxiety  and  fear  of  want  to  which  they  are 
subjected,  the  necessity  of  devoting  one's  major  energies  to  the 

10 


POVERTY— MISFORTUNE  OR  BLESSING? 

struggle  for  existence,  all  tend  to  deaden  the  intellect  and  to  stifle 
the  desire  for  learning. 

6.  Undesirable  Citizenship,  Poverty  is  an  important  factor 
in  crime.  Lack  of  adequate  training  in  childhood,  the  unfavorable 
atmosphere  of  the  slum,  and  the  pressure  of  physical  need  and 
the  consequent  feeling  of  recklessness,  all  tend  to  create  crimi- 
nality. Poverty  is  the  prolific  parent  of  crime.  As  Horace  Greeley 
expressed  it :  "Morality  and  religion  are  but  words  to  him  who 
fishes  in  gutters  for  the  means  of  sustaining  life,  and  crouches 
behind  barrels  in  the  street  for  shelter  from  the  cutting  blasts  of 
a  winter  night."  Ignorance  and  criminal  tendencies  on  the  part 
of  any  considerable  proportion  of  the  population  make  possible 
boss  rule  and  wholesale  corruption  and  endanger  democratic 
government. 

7.  Bitterness  and  Hatred.  To  live  in  a  slum,  to  feel  the 
pangs  of  hunger,  and  to  be  unable  to  provide  even  the  necessities 
of  life  for  one's  family,  while  only  a  few  blocks  away  other  men 
live  in  mansions  and  lavish  all  manner  of  luxuries  upon  their 
families,  does  not  tend  to  produce  love  toward  God  or  one's 
neighbors.  This  is  not  fertile  soil  for  Christian  virtues.  Do  men 
gather  grapes  of  thorns?  So  long  as  poverty  exists  there  can  be 
no  end  to  the  class  struggle. 

8.  Inefficient  Workers.  Poverty  is  one  of  the  chief  brakes 
upon  production.  Ill  health,  low  mentality,  lack  of  training, 
bitterness,  resentment,  and  a  general  breakdown  of  morale  all 
work  together  to  keep  the  worker  from  rendering  efficient  service. 
Inefficient  workers  affect  the  profits  of  the  employer  and  the 
general  prosperity  of  the  community.  If  industry  is  to  be  efficient 
the  present  degree  of  poverty  must  be  very  greatly  reduced. 

9.  Misery  and  Despair.  In  these  two  words  may  be  summed 
up  the  ultimate  consequences  of  enforced  poverty.  Even  a  few 
months'  experience  with  poverty  creates  a  feeling  of  helplessness 
and  hopelessness  that  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  overcome.  Energies 
are  consumed  in  the  grim  struggle  for  a  bare  existence.  Fear  of 
want  is  ever  present.  The  misery  of  the  poor  has  been  described 
by  Carlyle :  "It  is  not  because  of  his  toils  that  I  lament  for  the 

poor.     We  must  all  toil But  what  I  do  mourn  over  is, 

that  the  lamp  of  his  soul  should  go  out,  that  no  ray  of  heavenly, 
or  even  earthly,  knowledge  should  visit  him;  but  only,  in  the 
haggard  darkness,  like  two  spectres,   Fear  and  Indignation  bear 

11 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

him  company.     Alas,  while  the  body  stands  so  broad  and  brawny, 
must  the  soul  lie  blinded,  dwarfed,  stupefied,  almost  annihilated  !" 

POVERTY— MISFORTUNE    OR   BLESSING? 

Having  examined  some  of  the  favorable  and  some  of  the 
unfavorable  aspects  of  poverty,  are  we  now  prepared  to  decide 
whether  it  is  a  misfortune  or  a  blessing?  Let  us  tabulate  the 
advantages  and  disadvantages. 

Advantages  of  Poverty  Disadvantages  of  Poverty 

Compels  work  Sickness 

Incentive  to  achievement  Unwholesome  family  life 

Fewer  temptations  Mothers  and  children  in  industry 

Develops  character  Ignorance  and  inefficiency 

Better  chance  of  salvation  Bitterness  and  crime 

Brings  happiness  Misery 

Is  it  possible  to  strike  a  balance  between  these  two  sides?  A 
careful  distinction  should  be  made  between  poverty  which  is 
voluntarily  assumed  and  poverty  which  is  enforced.  There  is  not 
the  slightest  doubt  that  there  are  many  striking  illustrations  of 
sterling  character,  brilliant  achievement,  and  genuine  happiness  in 
the  midst  of  poverty.  We  are  strongly  convinced,  however,  that 
for  every  such  case,  there  are  hundreds  of  instances  where  modern 
enforced  poverty  is  accompanied  by  ignorance,  inefficiency,  squalor, 
wretchedness,  and  despair.  The  evidence  at  this  point  seems  to 
us  to  be  overwhelming.  There  is  surely  something  in  what  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  used  to  say:  "Poverty  is  very  good  in  poems,  but 
it  is  very  bad  in  the  house.  It  is  very  good  in  maxims  and  sermons, 
but  it  is  very  bad  in  practical  life." 

JESUS'  TEACHING  ABOUT  POVERTY 

The  teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  poverty  can  be  understood  only 
as  we  take  into  account  His  teaching  concerning  the  value  of 
human  life.  The  very  heart  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  that  every 
human  being  is  a  child  of  God,  of  inestimable  worth  and  more 
valuable  than  all  material  possessions ;  of  limitless  possibilities  of 
development,    even   to   the    extent    of   becoming   "perfect."     Each 

12 


POVERTY— MISFORTUNE  OR  BLESSING? 

individual  is  entitled  to  the  fullest  opportunity  for  self-expression 
and  self-development.  The  strongest  words  of  condemnation  used 
by  Jesus  are  reserved  for  those  -^ho  repress  human  development. 
"It  is  inevitable  that  hindrances  should  come,  but  woe  to  the  men 
by  whom  they  come,  it  would  be  well  for  him  to  have  a  millstone 
hung  around  his  neck  and  be  flung  into  the  sea,  rather  than  prove 
a  hindrance  to  one  of  these  little  ones."  The  parable  of  the  Good 
Shepherd  leaving  the  ninety  and  nine  safely  in  the  fold  and  going 
in  search  of  the  one  lost  sheep  is  a  picture  of  a  compassionate, 
seeking  God,  grieved  over  the  absence  of  even  one  of  His  chil- 
dren.   It  is  not  His  will  "that  even  the  least  of  these  shall  perish." 

The  dominant  purpose  of  Jesus  is  revealed  in  these  words:  "I 
came  that  they  may  have  life,  and  may  have  it  abundantly."  He 
was  concerned  with  the  physical  and  mental  needs  of  people,  as 
well  as  with  their  spiritual  life.  Much  of  His  time  was  spent  in 
ministering  to  the  bodily  needs  of  people.  "And  He  came  forth, 
and  saw  a  great  multitude,  and  He  had  compassion  on  them,  and 
healed  their  sick."  He  fed  the  hungry.  The  record  gives  His 
answer  when  His  disciples  wanted  to  send  away  the  hungry  multi- 
tude :  "Give  ye  them  to  eat." 

The  ultimate  test  of  every  institution  and  every  manner  of  life 
is  to  be  found  in  its  effects  upon  human  beings.  Poverty  is 
neither  good  nor  bad  in  itself.  It  is  good  when  human  beings  are 
uplifted,  it  is  bad  when  they  are  degraded.  Does  Jesus  commend 
or  condemn  poverty  as  a  way  of  life?  The  only  answer  that  can 
be  given  is  that  this  depends  upon  what  poverty  does  to  human 
beings.  Does  modern  poverty  uplift  or  degrade  those  who  live  in 
this  condition? 

The  real  contrast,  after  all,  is  not  between  poverty  and  great 
riches,  but  rather  whether  poverty  is  more  favorable  to  human 
development  than  decent  security  in  a  comfortable  standard  of  life. 
On  this  point  there  seems  to  be  no  basis  for  a  difference  in  opinion. 
Security  in  modest  comfort  is  the  soil  in  which  the  higher  values 
of  life — scientific  research,  artistic  achievement,  moral  righteous- 
ness, and  spiritual  insight — grow  most  readily.  The  really  deadly 
thing  about  poverty  is  that  it  makes  the  achievement  of  these 
values  exceedingly  difficult  if  not  impossible  for  most  persons. 

CAUSES  OF  POVERTY 

Even  if  we  do  decide  that,  on  the  whole,  the  evil  effects  of 
enforced  poverty  vastly  outweigh  the  good  effects,  the  question 

13 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

still  remains  as  to  the  chief  causes  of  poverty.  There  is  a  wide- 
spread belief  that  most  poverty  is  caused  by  personal  disqualifica- 
tions— laziness,  shiftlessness,  waste,  lack  of  thrift,  dissipation,  and 
general  no-account-ness.     Cowper  expressed  this  opinion  in  verse : 

"But  poverty,  with  most  who  whimper  forth 
Their  long  complaints,  is  self-inflicted  woe ; 
The  effect  of  laziness,  or  sottish  waste." 

There  is  surely  some  basis  for  this  belief.  Undoubtedly  many 
persons  spend  their  days  in  poverty  because  of  these  personal 
causes.  In  fact,  there  are  a  sufficient  number  of  cases  to  make  it 
easy  to  believe  that  most  poverty  is  caused  in  this  way.  Such  an 
explanation,  however,  by  no  means  accounts  for  the  bulk  of 
poverty.    Let  us  look  into  a  number  of  other  sources  of  poverty. 

1.  Sickness  and  Accidents.  When  it  is  remembered  that  the 
income  of  thousands  of  families  is  at  best  barely  sufficient  to  pro- 
vide the  necessities  of  life  and  permits  only  the  very  slightest 
margin  for  savings,  the  tragedy  of  sickness  and  accidents  will  be 
more  fully  appreciated. 

In  the  report  on  national  vitality  prepared  by  Professor  Irving 
Fisher  for  President  Roosevelt's  National  Conservation  Commis- 
sion it  was  estimated  that  in  the  United  States  there  are  about 
three  million  persons  seriously  ill  at  all  times.  The  Commission 
on  Industrial  Relations  estimated  that  the  average  American  work- 
man loses  nine  days'  work  per  year  on  account  of  sickness.  In 
1919  there  were  in  the  United  States  a  total  of  575,000  accidents 
causing  at  least  four  weeks'  disability.  As  a  result  of  sickness 
and  accidents  tens  of  thousands  of  workers  are  unable  to  work  from 
three  months  to  six  months  out  of  the  year.  Not  only  do  the 
wages  of  the  sick  or  injured  worker  usually  stop,  but  there  is  the 
added  expense  of  doctors  and  medicine,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
strain  upon  his  wife.  A  sickness  of  several  weeks  often  plunges 
a  family  into  debt  from  which  it  may  take  years  to  escape.  It  is 
impossible  to  estimate  the  human  tragedy  represented  in  such  cases. 

2.  Old  Age.  The  average  unskilled  worker  reaches  his  maxi- 
mum earning  power  shortly  after  attaining  to  manhood.  By  the 
time  he  is  married  his  income  is  about  as  high  as  it  ever  will  be. 
The  coming  of  each  baby  into  the  home  means  an  added  struggle 
and  a  lower  standard  of  life.  The  income  of  unskilled  workers 
is  not  sufficient  to  make  possible  any  considerable  saving  for  a 

14 


POVERTY— MISFORTUNE  OR  BLESSING? 

rainy  day  or  for  old  age.  As  the  worker  gets  on  in  years  his 
earning  capacity  decreases,  he  finds  it  increasingly  difficult  to  find 
work  and  the  periods  between  jobs  grow  longer.  One  of  two 
things  happens;  such  a  worker  becomes  dependent  upon  relatives, 
thus  increasing  their  struggle,  or  he  drifts  into  poverty,  existing 
on  a  lower  level  of  comfort  or  becoming  a  charge  upon  charity. 
There  are  few  kinds  of  misery  more  acute  than  that  felt  by  an 
old  man  who  realizes  that  his  earning  capacity  is  growing  less, 
and  who  is  in  constant  fear  that  he  will  lose  his  job  and  become 
an  object  of  charity. 

3.  The  Unemployable.  In  the  aggregate  a  large  group  of 
persons  are  unemployable  for  one  reason  or  another.  This  group 
includes  cripples,  invalids,  the  blind,  epileptics,  the  feeble-minded 
and  those  of  low  intelligence,  habitual  vagrants,  habitual  criminals, 
those  of  depraved  moral  character.  There  are,  of  course,  a  multi- 
tude of  causes  for  the  disqualifications  of  the  persons  in  this 
group.  It  cannot  be  questioned,  however,  that  a  considerable 
proportion  of  these  causes  are  rooted  in  poverty.  Ill  health, 
invalidism,  epilepsy,  feeble-mindedness,  vagrancy,  and  crime  all 
thrive  in  the  soil  of  poverty.  These  things  are  both  causes  and 
consequences  of  poverty. 

There  are  several  other  major  causes  of  poverty,  such  as  low 
wages  in  relation  to  the  high  cost  of  living,  enforced  unemploy- 
ment, and  the  inadequacy  of  the  national  income.  Our  final 
evaluation  of  the  causes  of  poverty  must  await  the  discussion  of 
these  factors  in  the  next  chapter. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THOUGHT  AND  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  are  the  advantages,  if  any,  of  being  poor? 

2.  What  are  the  disadvantages  of  being  poor? 

3.  Upon  the  whole,  is  it  an  advantage  or  a  disadvantage  to  be 


poor 


4.  Where  would  you  draw  the  line  between  desirable  and  un- 
desirable poverty? 

5.  At  which  of  the  following  levels  do  you  think  it  would  be 
most  desirable  for  a  family  with  three  children  to  live? 

(Put  on  blackboard.) 

g.    Extravagance     $30,000  per  year 

f .     Luxury    1 5,000  per  year 

e.     Plenty    8,000  per  year 

IS 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

d.  Enough  for  complete  living   ....  5,600  per  year^ 

c.  Reasonable  comforts   3,500  per  year 

b.  Health  and  decency   2,200  per  year^ 

a.  Fair   standard    1,700  per  year^ 

(There  will  probably  be  discussion  as  to  whether  the  estimated 
amounts  are  accurate.  Let  there  be  discussion  on  that  and  change 
amounts  where  there  seems  basis  for  same  and  a  majority  senti- 
ment.) 

6.  Which,  if  any,  of  the  levels  of  living  are  inconsistent  for  a 
Christian? 

7.  Some  people  say  that  Christianity  has  tended  to  make  the 
common  people  accept  poverty  and  bad  conditions  as  the  will  of  the 
Lord  and  to  be  content  in  the  hopes  of  future  happiness.  What  do 
you  think? 

8.  Some  claim,  on  the  contrary,  that  Jesus  really  took  sides 
with  the  poor  against  the  rich  and  powerful.  What  is  your  im- 
pressions from  reading  the  record  of  Jesus'  life?  What  evidence 
do  you  find  ? 

9.  What  contribution  did  Jesus  make  to  the  solution  of  the 
problem  of  poverty?  What  evidence,  if  any,  that  Christianity  has 
reduced  poverty  in  the  world?  (How  about  Christian  versus  non- 
Christian  countries?) 


^  Estimate  of  Edward  W.  Evans  in  article,  "When  a  Christian  Ques- 
tions Himself,"  The   World  Tomorroiv,  Nov.,  1921.     See  page  42. 

'  Estimated  Budget,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C,  August.  1919.     See  page  42. 

3  Estimated  Budget,  National  Industrial  Conference  Board,  New  York 
City  Special  Report  No.  19,  Oct.,  1921.  See  page  24. 


16 


CHAPTER  3 
Is  Poverty  a  Serious  Problem? 

President  Harding,  in  his  message  at  the  opening  of  the  second 
session  of  the  Sixty-seventh  Congress,  said :  "On  the  way  up 
from  the  elemental  stages  of  society,  we  have  eliminated  slavery 
and  serfdom  and  are  now  far  on  the  way  to  the  elimination  of 
iioverty." 

This  statement  is  in  accord  with  the  general  opinion  as  to  the 
amount  of  poverty  in  the  United  States.  It  is  recognized,  of 
course,  that  there  are  still  many  cases  of  poverty  and  that  it  will 
probably  be  necessary  to  appropriate  public  funds  and  solicit 
private  philanthropy  for  the  support  of  charitable  institutions  for 
a  long  time  to  come.  But  the  opinion  prevails  that  the  number 
of  persons  who  are  in  need  of  charitable  aid  are  relatively  few; 
that  the  great  mass  of  people  in  the  United  States  are  living  in 
comfortable  circumstances  and  are  quite  able  to  look  after  them- 
selves. It  is  generally  recognized  that  in  the  Orient  and  in  parts 
of  Europe  poverty  is  a  very  serious  problem.  But  the  common 
opinion  is  that  in  the  United  States  the  situation  is  different ;  the 
volume  of  poverty  is  not  sufficient  to  cause  alarm. 

The  amount  of  poverty  in  the  United  States  has  never  been 
accurately  measured.  \^arious  estimates  have  been  made,  however, 
which  are  at  variance  with  the  general  belief.  Several  different 
writers  have  estimated  that  the  number  of  persons  living  in  poverty 
or  on  the  border  line  of  the  minimum  subsistence  level  is  approxi- 
mately 10,000,000.1  This  figure  is  challenged  and  usually  it  is 
regarded  as  a  gross  exaggeration. 

Is  there  any  way  of  getting  at  the  facts  in  the  case?  Can  we 
find  out  whether  or  not  poverty  is  really  a  serious  problem?  There 
are  at  least  four  sources  from  which  we  can  gain  light :  (1)  public 
and  private  charitable  agencies;  (2)  wage  schedules;  (3)  income- 
tax  figures;  (4)  estimates  of  the  national  income. 


^  See    the     estimates    of     Robert    Hunter,    John     Simpson     Penman,    and 
•Maurice  Parmelee. 

17 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

The  records  of  charitable  agencies  by  no  means  indicate  the  full 
amount  of  poverty.  As  a  rule,  only  the  extreme  cases  receive 
help  from  such  agencies.  But  even  so  the  figures  are  disturbing. 
After  an  analysis  of  relief  records,  Professor  Parmelee  estimates 
that  the  number  of  persons  in  the  United  States  who  receive  more 
or  less  charitable  aid  ranges  from  five  to  ten  per  cent  of  the 
population.  In  New  York  City  alone  more  than  $60,000,000  a  year 
is  spent  for  charitable  purposes.  The  fact  that  out  of  the  total 
number  of  deaths  in  New  York  City  one  person  in  twelve  is 
buried  at  public  expense  in  the  Potter's  Field  is  an  indication  as  to 
the  enormous  number  of  people  who  are  living  in  poverty  or  are 
constantly  hovering  near  the  brink. 

RATES   OF  WAGES 

There  is  a  widespread  belief  that  workers  have  been  receiving 
exorbitant  wages  during  the  last  few  years.  This  popular  con- 
ception was  set  forth  recently  by  a  writer  in  a  prominent  religious 
periodica!  in  these  words :  "Linotype  operators  who  set  the  type 
come  to  work  in  their  limousines ;  pressmen  have  their  summer 
homes  up  the  Hudson ;  binders  keep  their  private  yachts,  and  paper 
makers  subscribe  to  grand  opera." 

What  are  the  facts  as  to  the  wages  of  skilled  workers?  In  the 
September,  1921,  issue  of  the  Monthly  Labor  Review,  an  official 
publication  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  we 
find  the  union  scale  of  wages  for  boiler  makers,  bricklayers,  car- 
penters, cement  finishers,  compositors,  electrotypers,  granite 
cutters,  inside  wiremen,  machine  operators,  machinists,  iron 
moulders,  painters,  plasterers,  plumbers,  sheet  metal  workers,  in 
some  forty  American  cities  from  1913  to  1921.  These  tables  show 
a  very  marked  increase  in  the  scale  of  wages  for  1921  as  compared 
with  1913.  The  1921  rates  vary  from  $1.25  an  hour  to  seventy-five 
cents  per  hour.  The  table  shows  that  in  the  forty  cities  there  were 
only  about  a  dozen  cases  in  all  of  these  occupations  where  the 
rate  was  higher  than  $1.25  per  hour.  There  was  a  considerably 
larger  number  of  cases  where  the  rates  were  below  seventy-five 
cents  an  hour,  in  several  instances  being  as  low  as  fifty-five  cents 
and  sixty  cents  an  hour.  The  above  figures  do  not  include  hod- 
carriers  and  ordinary  laborers  but  only  skilled  workers. 

At  the  rate  of  $1.25  an  hour  a  skilled  worker  receives  $60  for 
six  days  of  eight  hours  each.  This  amounts  to  $3,120  for  the  year, 
if  the  worker  is  employed  six  full  days  every  week.    At  the  rate 

18 


IS  POVERTY  A  SERIOUS  PROBLEM? 

of  seventy-five  cents  per  hour  a  skilled  worker  receives  $36  per 
week  or  $1,872  for  a  full  year.  But,  of  course,  these  men  are  not 
able  to  work  every  day  in  the  year.  Even  in  normal  times  there 
is  a  considerable  volume  of  lost  time  due  to  bad  weather,  slack 
seasons,  change  of  jobs,  holidays,  sickness,  or  accidents.  The 
Committee  on  Elimination  of  Waste  in  Industry  of  the  Federated 
American  Engineering  Societies,  appointed  by  Herbert  Hoover, 
estimates  that  "the  building-trade  workman  is  employed  only  about 
190  days  in  the  year,  or  approximately  sixty-three  per  cent  of  his 
timc."i 

This  thirty-seven  per  cent  loss  of  time  reduces  the  average 
income  of  the  $1.2S-per-hour-man  to  $37.80  per  week  or  $1,965.60 
per  year.  The  average  income  of  the  seventy-five-cents-per-hour- 
man  is  reduced  to  $22.68  per  week  or  $1,179.36  per  year. 

There  are  many  occupations  in  which  the  extent  of  lost  time  is 
not  so  great  as  in  the  building  trades.  There  are,  however,  many 
seasonal  occupations  in  which  the  volume  of  lost  time  is  even 
greater.  It  ought  to  be  remembered  also  that  in  years  of  severe 
trade  depression  the  amount  of  lost  time  is  very  greatly  increased. 
During  the  past  year,  for  example,  several  millions  of  workers 
have  been  employed  less  than  half  time.  From  four  to  five  millions 
of  workers  have  been  unemployed  at  a  given  date.  Even  in  normal 
times  an  appalling  number  of  men  are  unable  to  find  regular 
employment.  The  report  of  the  Federal  Commission  on  Industrial 
Relations  says :  "Wage-earners  in  the  principal  manufacturing 
and  mining  industries  in  the  United  States  lose  on  the  average 
from  one-fifth  to  one-fourth  of  the  working  time  during  the 
normal  year."- 

Concerning  the  amount  of  lost  time  in  the  various  industries, 
Mr.  Hoover's  Committee  on  the  Elimination  of  Waste  says :  "The 
clothing  worker  is  idle  about  thirty-one  per  cent  of  the  year;  the 
average  shoe-maker  spends  only  sixty-five  per  cent  of  his  time 
at  work;  the  building-trade  workman  is  employed  only  about  190 
days  in  the  year  or  approximately  sixty-three  per  cent  of  his 
time ;  the  textile  industry  seemingly  has  regular  intervals  of  slack 
time ;  during  the  past  thirty  years  bituminous-coal  miners  were 
idle  an  average  of  ninety-three  possible  working  days  per  year."^ 

It  IS  often  assumed  that  railway  employes  are  receiving  unduly 


^  "Waste  in  Industry,"  p.  16. 

2  Senate  Document,  No.  415,  p.  103. 

^  "Waste  in  Industry,"  p.   16. 

19 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

high  wages.  Tables  prepared  by  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission do  not  bear  out  such  an  assumption.  Aside  from  the 
executives  and  official  staffs,  the  average  earnings  of  no  group 
of  railroad  employes  in  September,  1921,  was  as  high  as  $260  per 
month.  The  total  number  of  employes  in  groups  whose  average 
earnings  were  less  than  $1,500  per  year  was  841,294,  or  forty-eight 
per  cent  of  all  railway  employes,  while  the  total  number  in  groups 
whose  average  earnings  were  less  than  $1,200  per  year  was  431,249, 
or  twenty-five  per  cent  of  all  railway  employes.^ 

There  are,  no  doubt,  many  skilled  workers  who  have  been 
earning  relatively  high  wages  and  who  have  been  able  to  secure 
regular  employment.  But  only  an  exceedingly  small  proportion 
of  skilled  workers  receive  as  much  as  $1.25  per  hour,  or  $3,120 
per  year,  and  of  these  the  large  majority  are  unemployed  from 
ten  to  forty  per  cent  of  the  time.  The  facts  in  the  case  do  not 
bear  out  the  popular  belief  that  workers  are  receiving  exorbitant 
wages.  It  should  also  be  remembered  that  there  have  been  heavy 
reductions  in  wages  during  the  past  two  years. 

Let  us  now  examine  the  wage  rates  for  unskilled  workers.  In 
the  steel  industry  the  current  rate  for  ordinary  laborers  is  thirty 
cents  and  twenty-five  cents  an  hour.  Common  laborers  in  the 
employ  of  railroad  companies  receive  from  forty  cents  to  twenty 
cents  per  hour.  This  means  that  unskilled  workers  are  now  receiv- 
ing from  $24  to  $12  per  week  for  ten  hours  per  day,  six  days  per 
week. 

In  1919  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  made  a 
survey  of  twenty-seven  different  industries  in  forty-three  states 
having  a  total  of  318,946  male  employes  and  85,812  female 
employes.-  An  examination  of  the  record  of  this  survey  will 
shed  light  on  current  rates  of  wages,  since  there  is  conclusive 
evidence,  that  the  rates  for  common  laborers  are  now  much  less 
than  in  1919.  In  the  steel  industry,  for  example,  unskilled 
workers  received  $4.62  for  ten  hours  in  1919,  whereas  the  current 
rate  is  $3.00  for  ten  hours.  This  is  the  same  rate  that  was  paid 
in  May,  1917.  Keeping  in  mind  the  fact  that  1919  rates  were 
much  higher  than  1922  rates,  let  us  analyze  the  figures  of  the 
1919  survey. 

Of  the  318,946  male  employes  included  in  this  survey  less  than 


^  Quoted  in  "The  Wage   Question,"   p.   21,  a  pamphlet  published  by  the 
Research  Department  of  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches. 
2  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  Bulletin  265. 

20 


IS  POVERTY  A  SERIOUS  PROBLEM? 

six  per  cent  received  as  much  as  $1  per  hour.  Less  than  twenty- 
one  per  cent  received  as  much  as  seventy  cents  per  hour.  More 
than  forty-seven  per  cent  of  the  total  number  received  less  than 
fiftj'  cents  per  hour,  v^rhile  nearly  seven  per  cent  received  less  than 
thirty  cents  per  hour. 

In  April,  1921,  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics 
made  a  study  of  wages  in  thirty-four  slaughter  houses  and  meat 
packing  plants.^  Of  the  28,969  male  employes  working  in  these 
establishments,  only  eight  per  cent  received  as  much  as  sixty-five 
cents  per  hour,  while  sixty-six  per  cent  received  less  than  fifty 
cents  per  hour.  There  have  been  marked  reductions  in  the  rates 
since  April,  1921. 

In  July,  1921,  the  New  York  State  Industrial  Commission  issued 
a  report  covering  the  average  weekly  earnings  in  1,648  repre- 
sentative factories  employing  a  total  of  450,000  workers  in  ten 
industries,  as  follows : 

Stone,  clay,  and  glass    $26.04 

Metals  and  machinery 27.79 

Wood  manufacturers    24.85 

Furs,  leather,  and  rubber  goods   25.22 

Chemicals,  oils,  and  paints   26.61 

Paper    manufacture    26.47 

Printing  and  paper  goods    30.33 

Textiles    20.78 

Clothing     23.28 

Food,  beverages,  and  tobacco   24.48 

Total,  all  industries    $25.71 

These  figures  will  assume  added  significance  when  it  is  remem- 
bered that  a  large  proportion  of  these  450,000  workers  received 
much  less  than  the  average  of  $25.71  per  week.  The  average 
earnings  of  these  workers  is  less  now  than  in  July,  1921. 

The  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  has  estimated  that 
farm  laborers  during  1921  received  an  average  of  $42.65  per 
month  without  board.  At  harvest  time  farm  laborers  were  paid 
an  average  of  $2.80  per  day  without  board,  and  at  other  seasons 
an  average  of  $2.17  per  day  without  board.  The  rates  in  many 
sections  are  much  lower  than  these. 

What  are  the  facts  as  to  wom.en's  wages?     In  the  survey  made 

'  U.  S.   Monthly  Labor  Review,   Sept.,   1921. 

21 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

by  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  in  1919,i  when 
wages  were  higher  than  in  1922,  it  was  found  that  approximately 
twenty-one  per  cent  of  the  women  received  less  than  $11  per 
week,  while  fifty  per  cent  received  less  than  $13.50  per  week— 
when  six  full  days  were  worked.  An  investigation  made  by  the 
Council  of  National  Defence  and  Minnesota  Bureau  of  Women 
and  Children  of  women's  wages  in  Minnesota  in  1918,  revealed 
the  fact  that  out  of  the  51,361  included  in  the  survey,^  approxi- 
mately forty-seven  per  cent  received  less  than  $10  per  week,  while 
less  than  twenty  per  cent  received  as  much  as  $15  per  week. 

The  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor  has  issued  a  bulletin 
dealing  with  the  wages  of  61,160  women  employed  in  factories 
and  mercantile  establishments  at  the  end  of  1918.3  Approximately 
half  of  the  total  number  received  less  than  $11.50  per  week. 
Average  wage  rates  are  now  lower  than  at  the  end  of  1918. 

In  the  summer  of  1920  the  Women's  Bureau  of  the  United 
States  Department  of  Labor  made  an  investigation  of  women's 
wages  in  Kansas.  Of  the  4,138  women  included  in  the  survey, 
fifty  per  cent  received  less  than  $12  per  week,  while  seventy  per 
cent  received  less  than  $15  per  week.  Rates  have  been  reduced 
since  the  summer  of  1920.  Of  the  1,298  saleswomen  employed 
in  five  and  ten  cent  stores  investigated  by  the  New  York  Depart- 
ment of  Labor  in  September,  1921,  twenty-eight  per  cent  received 
less  than  $12  per  week,  while  seventy-six  per  cent  received  less 
than  $15  per  week. 

INCOME-TAX  RETURNS 

An  important  analysis  of  incomes  in  the  United  States  has 
recently  appeared.*  It  represents  a  year's  intensive  study  on  the 
part  of  four  members  of  the  staff  of  the  National  Bureau  of 
Economic    Research.^     This    report    estimates    that    of   the   more 


^  District  of  Columbia  Minimum  Wage  Cases,  Brief  for  Appelees  by  Felix 
Frankfurter,  p.  319 — taken  from  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  Bulletin  265. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  339. 

^Ibid.,  p.  351. 

*  "The  Income  in  the  United  States." 

°  The  National  Bureau  of  Economic  Research  is  controlled  by  nineteen 
directors,  including  representatives  from  the  U.  S.  Treasury  Department, 
the  National  Industrial  Conference  Board,  The  American  Economic  Asso- 
ciation, The  American  Bankers'  Association,  The  American  Federation  of 
Labor,  The  Engineering  Council,  The  American  Statistical  Association, 
etc.     Its  findings  may  be  depended  upon  as  scientific  and  impartial. 

22 


IS  POVERTY  A  SERIOUS  PROBLEM f 

than  thirty-seven  milHons  of  persons  in  the  United  States  having 
an  income,  more  than  fourteen  and  one-half  millions  received  less 
than  $1,000  for  the  year  1918,  and  more  than  twenty-seven  mil- 
lions received  less  than  $1,500  for  the  year.  Or  to  put  it  another 
way,  only  ten  and  one-half  millions,  or  twenty-eight  per  cent, 
received  an  income  as  high  as  $1,500  for  the  year. 

There  are  upwards  of  twenty  million  families  in  the  United 
States  and  in  approximately  half  of  these  the  head  of  the  family 
received  an  income  of  less  than  $1,500.  Only  a  few  more  than 
five  million  persons  received  as  much  as  $2,000  during  1918. 

This  estimate  of  5,290,649  persons  as  having  an  income  above 
$2,000  is  higher  than  the  official  income-tax  figures.  Only  4,425,-. 
114  persons  filed  any  return  whatever  and  of  these  only  2,908,176 
gave  their  net  income  as  above  $2^000.  The  difference  in  the  two 
figures  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  staff  of  the  National  Bureau 
of  Economic  Research  made  allowances  for  non-taxable  income, 
for  under-reporting,  and  for  non-reporting  of  income. 

This  report  classifies  these  incomes  as  follows  :^ 

No.  of  incomes  under  $500  2,027,554 

No.  of  incomes  under  $1,000  14,558,224 

No.  of  incomes  under  $1,500  27,056,344 

No.  of  incomes  under  $2,000  32,278,4112 

No.  of  incomes  above  $2,000   5,290,649 

Total  number  of  incomes    37,569,060 

NATIONAL  INCOME 

Let  us  come  at  this  question  from  another  angle.  The  total 
income  in  the  United  States  during  1918  has  been  estimated  by 
the  National  Bureau  of  Economic  Research  at  sixty-one  billions 
of  dollars.^  This  means  an  annual  income  of  $581  per  capita,  or 
approximately  $2,900  for  each  of  the  twenty-one  million  families. 
But,  of  course,  it  is  not  possible  to  divide  this  income  equally. 
From  six  to  nine  millions  of  this  amount  are  expended  for  govern- 
ment and  other  public  functions.  At  least  ten  per  cent  of  the 
national    income    should    be    reserved    for    the    maintenance    and 


^p.   136. 

-  Not    including    farmers,    the    number     of    incomes    under     $2,000    was 
30,450,000  and  the  number  of  incomes  above  $2,000  was  3,400,000. 
3  p.  76. 

23 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

expansion  of  industry  if  production  is  to  be  sustained.  Not  more 
than  forty-eight  bilHons  of  the  national  income  would  be  available 
for  equal  distribution  among  all  the  population.  This  would 
mean  an  average  income  of  less  than  $2,300  per  family,  even  if 
the  available  income  should  be  divided  equally.  But,  of  course, 
the  national  income  is  not  divided  equally.  More  than  254,000 
persons  receive  an  income  of  at  least  $10,000  per  year,  and  upwards 
of  842,000  persons  receive  an  income  of  more  than  $5,000  per  year. 

THE  HIGH  COST  OF  LIVING 

The  significance  of  these  wage  schedules  and  income-tax 
figures  can  be  understood  only  as  we  take  into  account  the  high 
cost  of  living.  How  much  does  it  cost  a  family  to  maintain  a 
decent  standard  of  life? 

The  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  issues  minimum 
quantity  and  cost  budgets  from  time  to  time.  Similar  budgets  are 
also  issued  by  several  other  agencies,  including  the  National 
Industrial  Conference  Board,  a  research  organization  maintained 
by  employers'  associations.  In  August,  19.19,  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  prepared  a  minimum  health  and  decency 
budget  for  a  family  of  five — father,  mother,  and  three  children 
under  fifteen — in  Washington,  D.  C.  The  total  budget,  after 
deducting  for  minor  economies,  amounted  to  $2,015.56.  In  July, 
1918,  Professor  W.  F.  Ogburn  prepared  a  minimum  comfort 
budget  for  the  National  War  Labor  Board,  the  total  cost  of 
which  he  placed  at  $1,760.50.  In  September,  1921,  the  National 
Industrial  Conference  Board  prepared  a  "fair  minimum  standard" 
budget  for  Detroit.  The  total  figure  of  the  budget  for  a  family 
of  live  was  set  at  $1,697.95  per  year,  or  $32.66  per  week. 

Reducing  the  former  budgets  to  prices  prevailing  in  September, 
1921,  we  have  three  minimum  budgets  as  follows: 

United  Bureau  of  Labor  statistics  $1,940.98 

National  War  Labor  Board   2,014.57 

National  Industrial  Conference  Board    1,697.95 

Let  us  analyze  one  of  these  budgets, ^taking  for  this  purpose 
the  National  Industrial  Conference  Boasd  estimate,^  since  it  was 


1  National  Industrial  Conference  Board,  "The  Cost  of  Living  Among 
Wage-Earners,"  Detroit,  Mich.,  Sept.,  1921.  Special  Report  No.  19,  Oct., 
1921. 

24 


IS  POVERTY  A  SERIOUS  PROBLEM? 

prepared  under  the  direction  of  employers.  The  amounts  for  the 
various  items  in  this  weekly  budget  for  father,  mother,  and  three 
children  under  fifteen  are  as  follows : 

Food    $10.30 

Shelter    8.08 

Clothing     5.68 

Fuel  and  light   2.20 

Sundries     6.40 

Reduced  to  still  smaller  detail  the  item  of  $10.30  per  week  for 
food  means  an  average  of  forty-nine  cents  per  meal  for  the  entire 
family,  or  eleven  cents  each  for  father  and  mother  and  nine 
cents  each  for  three  children.  The  item  of  $6.40  per  week  for 
sundries  must  include  all  expenditures  for  household  supplies  and 
furnishings,  physician,  dentist,  drugs,  laundry,  carfare,  newspapers, 
education,  amusements  and  recreation,  church  and  charity,  insur- 
ance, and  burials. 

The  National  Industrial  Conference  Board  also  prepared  a 
minimum  budget  for  a  family  of  four  and  another  for  a  family  of 
three.  The  figures  for  father,  mother,  and  two  children  was  set 
at  $29.37  per  week  or  $1,527.08  per  year,  and  the  figure  for  a 
family  in  which  there  is  only  one  child  at  $24.10  per  week  or 
$1,252.81  per  year. 

Let  us  now  compare  the  incomes  of  unskilled  workers  with  the 
minimum  budget  for  a  family  of  five  prepared  by  the  National 
Industrial  Conference  Board.  The  striking  fact  is  that  the 
income  of  all  workers  who  receive  sixty-five  cents  per  hour  or 
less,  and  who  work  ten  hours  per  day,  and  who  lose  an  average  of 
twenty  per  cent  working  time,  falls  short  of  this  minimum 
budget.  The  significance  of  this  fact  will  be  understood  when  it 
is  remembered  that  very  few  unskilled  workers  receive  as  much 
as  sixty-five  cents  per  hour.  The  following  table  shows  how 
much  below  the  minimum  budget  the  various  rates  are: 


25 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

A  Comparison  of  Wage  Rates  with  the  Minimum  Budgets  of 
THE  National  Industrial  Conference  Board 


Cents 

60-hour  week. 

Amount  income  fa 

lis  short  of  week 

ly  budget  fc 

per 

less  20  per  cent 

family  of 

family  of 

family  of 

Hour 

lost  time 

five 

four 

three 

65 

$31.20 

$   1.46 

60 

28.80 

3.86 

$    .57 

55 

26.40 

6.26 

2.97 

SO 

24.00 

8.66 

5.37 

$     .10 

40 

19.20 

13.46 

10.17 

4.90 

35 

16.80 

15.86 

12.57 

7.30 

30 

14.40 

18.26 

14.97 

9.70 

25 

12.00 

20.66 

17.37 

12.10 

20 

9.60 

23.06 

19.77 

14.50 

In  the  light  of  the  wage  schedules,  income-tax  returns,  an  analy- 
sis of  the  national  income,  and  minimum  budgets,  it  seems  difficult 
to  question  the  essential  accuracy  of  the  conclusion  reached  by  the 
Federal  Commission  on  Industrial  Relations  that  "a  large  part  of 
our  industrial  population  are,  as  a  result  of  the  combination  of 
low  wages  and  unemployment,  living  in  a  condition  of  actual 
poverty.  How  large  this  proportion  is  cannot  be  exactly  deter- 
mined, but  it  is  certain  that  at  least  one-third  and  possibly  one-half 
of  the  families  of  wage  earners  employed  in  manufacturing  and 
mining  earn  in  the  course  of  the  year  less  than  enough  to  support 
them  in  anything  like  a  comfortable  and  decent  condition."^ 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THOUGHT  AND  DISCUSSION 

1.  It  is  sometimes  claimed  that  aside  from  a  small  proportion 
of  cases  due  to  sickness  and  misfortunes,  which  should  be  covered 
by  philanthropy,  no  one  who  is  thrifty  needs  to  be  without  enough 
on  which  to  live,  and  that  the  rank  and  file  of  folks  can  get  along 
very  well.    What  is  your  impression? 

2.  There  is  a  widespread  feeling  that  the  workers  are  living 
in  comparative  luxury,  having  expensive  clothes,  buying  auto- 
mobiles, and  spending  money  extravagantly.  Why  do  people  think 
labor  is  being  paid  too  much? 

3.  Is  poverty  really  a  serious  problem?  The  answer  to  this 
question  depends  upon  the  consideration  of  two  questions: 

a.    What  does  it  cost  to  live  ? 


1  Senate  Document  No.  415,  p.  22. 

26 


IS  POVERTY  A  SERIOUS  PROBLEM? 

b.  What  proportion  of  the  workers  are  receiving  less  than  a 
minimum  subsistence  wage? 

Information  on  this  will  be  found  in  the  chapter  and  should 
be  studied  in  answer  to  these  questions.  To  introduce  this  material 
vividly  into  the  discussion,  the  leader  should  select  some  of  the 
salient  facts  and  have  them  ready  for  display,  either  on  a  black- 
board or  a  large  sheet  of  cardboard.  Following  is  a  possible 
display  of  this  sort : 

A.  What  does  it  cost  to  live? 

Employers'  estimate  of  mmimum  subsistence  budget. 

Detroit,  Mich.,  Sept.,  1921. 

(Page  14,  Special  Report  No.  19,  National  Industrial  Conference 

Board,  New  York  City,  on  "The  Cost  of   Living  among 

Wage  Earners.") 

For  family  with  one  child  $24.10  per  week    $1,252.81  per  year 

For  family  with  two  children  29.37  per  week       1,527.08  per  year 

For  family  with  three  children        32.66  per  week       1,697.95  per  year 

B.  What  the  workers  are  being  paid. 

In  10  million  of  the  20  million  families  in  the  United  States,  the 
head  of  the  family  is  receiving  $1,500  or  less  per  year. 

The  railroad  workers  are  supposed  to  be  highly  paid.  In  Sep- 
tember, 1921,  48.95  per  cent  of  railway  workers  were  receiving  less 
than  $1,500  per  year. 

In  June,  1921,  ten  chief  industries  of  New  York  State,  represent- 
ing 450,000  workers,  the  average  wage  was  $25.71  per  week  or 
$1,336.92  per  year. 

Wages  of  common  labor  in  steel  industry  is  30  cents  per  hour  or 
$936  per  year  on  a  ten-hour  day. 

c.     Surplus  or  deficit  for  family  with  three  children. 
(Based  on  Detroit  budgets  and  living  costs.) 
>   8-hour  day.     Twenty  per  cent  loss  of  time'^ 
If  rate  is  $1.25  per  hour,  surplus  per  week  above  subsistence2  is  $15.34 
If  rate  is    1.00  per  hour,  surplus  per  week  above  subsistence  is        5.74 
If  rate  is     .80  per  hour,  deficit  per  week  below  subsistence  is  1 .94 

I  f  rate  is      .55  per  hour,  deficit  per  week  below  subsistence  is        1 1 .54 

^This  is  the  average  estimated  loss  of  time  in  building  and  similar 
skilled  trades. 

2  The  table  on  p.  25  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  index  in  its  items  of  expendi- 
tures as  to  what  is  meant  by  "subsistence." 

27 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

jo-hour  day.    full  time.    6o-hour  zvcck 

If  rate  is  .50  per  hour,  deficit  per  week  below  subsistence  is  $  2.66 

If  rate  is  .40  per  hour,  deficit  per  week  below  subsistence  is  8.66 

If  rate  is  .30  per  hour,  deficit  per  week  below  subsistence  is  14.66 

If  rate  is  .20  per  hour,  deficit  per  week  below  subsistence  is  20.66 

(Compare  this  schedule  with  local  costs  and  rates.  The  leader 
may  wish  to  substitute  table  as  given  at  top  of  page  26.) 

D.  Conclusion  of  United  States  Commission  on  Industrial 
Relations. 
"It  is  evident  both  from  the  investigations  of  this  commission 
and  from  the  reports  of  all  recent  governmental  bodies  that  a 
large  part  of  our  industrial  populations  are,  as  a  result  of  the 
combination  of  low  wages  and  unemployment,  living  in  a  condition 
of  actual  poverty.  How  large  this  proportion  is  cannot  be  exactly 
determined,  but  it  is  certain  that  at  least  one-third  and  possibly 
one-half  of  the  families  of  wage  earners  employed  in  manufactur- 
ing and  mining  earn  in  the  course  of  the  year  less  than  enough  to 
support  them  in  anything  like  comfortable  and  decent  conditions." 

4.  In  the  light  of  the  study  and  discussion  of  this  problem,  do 
you  or  do  you  not  consider  having  enough  on  which  to  live  is  a 
serious  problem  in  this  country?     Is  poverty  a  serious  problem? 

5.  At  present  if  all  the  available  income  were  divided  up  it 
would  give  only  $2,300  to  each  family.  Because  of  low  produc- 
tion, luxury  production  and  extravagance  there  isn't  enough  to  go 
around  and  give  everybody  anything  above  a  Health  and  Decency 
Budget  of  $2,500  per  year.  Which  is  better,  that  a  smaller  pro- 
portion have  plenty  while  many  are  in  want,  or  would  it  be  better 
to  attempt  more  nearly  to  equalize  incomes? 

6.  In  a  country  completely  Christian  would  there  or  would 
there  not  be  any  poor?  Would  the  thorough  application  of  Chris- 
tian principles  to  social  and  industrial  life  increase  the  income  so 
that  each  family  would  have  enough  for  reasonable  comforts  or 
complete  living? 

7.  What  are  the  causes  of  poverty?   Can  poverty  be  eradicated? 


28 


CHAPTER  4 

Do  Great  Fortunes  Help  or  Hinder 
Social  Progress? 

For  the  purpose  of  this  discussion  let  us  arbitrarily  define  a 
great  fortune  as  one  valued  at  a  million  dollars  or  with  an  income 
of  $50,000  per  year.  It  is  estimated  that  in  the  United  States  in 
1918  there  were  21,453  incomes  of  $50,000  or  above.  We  are  also 
told  that :  "more  than  forty  families  in  the  United  States  have  in 
excess  of  100  millions  each.  More  than  100  other  families  have 
in  excess  of  fifty  millions  each.  More  than  300  other  families 
have  in  excess  of  twenty  millions  each.''^  The  question  with 
which  we  are  concerned  in  the  following  paragraphs  is  this :  Is 
it  a  good  thing  or  a  bad  thing  for  the  country  as  a  whole  to  have 
this  degree  of  concentration  of  wealth? 

DO  THE  RICH  DESERVE  TO  BE  RICH? 

Before  we  examine  both  sides  of  the  argument,  a  prior  question 
must  be  dealt  with.  It  is  often  contended  that  regardless  of 
whether  great  fortunes  are  a  blessing  or  a  menace  to  the  country, 
society  has  no  right  to  interfere  because  to  do  so  would  be  an 
unwarranted  invasion  of  private  ownership. 

The  basis  of  this  attitude  is  that  wealth  is  achieved  by  superior 
ability,  self-control,  and  a  high  degree  of  self-sacrifice.  So  we 
are  told :  "The  most  extraordinary  thing  that  makes  for  human 
inequality  is  the  diversity  of  ability  and  quality  in  the  human  mind. 
....  Why  is  the  accumulated  wealth  of  the  country  in  the  hands 
of  a  comparative  few?  It  is  because  there  are  comparatively  few 
of  all  men  born,  who  are  able  or  willing  to  control  their  appetites 
and  their  spendings.  There  are  few  who  appreciate  the  need  of 
saving.     There  are  few  who  realize  what  can  be  done  with  the 


1  "Dynastic  America,"  p.    13,   by   il.   H.   Klein,   Deputy   Commissioner  of 
Accounts  of  New  York  City. 

29 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

accumulations  of  thrift  and  saving."  The  adherents  to  this  view 
go  on  to  say  that  since  wealth  is  the  reward  of  toil,  good  judg- 
ment, self-denial,  and  saving,  it  would  be  morally  wrong  to  inter- 
fere with  great  fortunes. 

There  is  surely  much  to  be  said  for  this  point  of  view.  It  is 
unfortunately  true  that  many  people  have  low  intelligence  and 
poor  judgment,  and  that  many  others  are  self-indulgent,  lacking 
in  thrift,  and  never  able  to  save  anything.  From  the  viewpoint 
of  social  welfare  it  is  highly  questionable  whether  this  latter  group 
should  receive  the  same  rewards  as  are  given  to  the  intelligent, 
industrious,  and  thrifty. 

And  yet  there  are  several  fallacies  in  the  argument  outlined 
above.  As  a  matter  of  actual  fact,  were  the  21,000  great  fortunes 
in  the  United  States  achieved  by  unusual  brain  power,  hard  work, 
and  self-denial?  There  is  considerable  doubt  as  to  whether  very 
many  of  these  great  fortunes  were  achieved  solely  in  this  manner. 
Let  us  examine  the  sources  of  a  few  of  them. 

The  fortune  of  the  Astor  family  now  runs  into  hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars.  John  Jacob  Astor  got  his  start  by  trading 
with  the  Indians — exchanging  beads,  knives,  guns,  and  whiskey 
for  furs.  His  profits  were  invested  in  New  York  real  estate. 
Dozens  of  lots  on  lower  Broadway  for  which  he  paid  $300  are 
now  valued  at  $400,000.  An  east  side  farm  which  cost  him 
$20,000  is  now  valued  at  more  than  ten  millions.  The  growth  of 
New  York  City  has  increased  the  value  of  property  decade  after 
decade,  with  the  result  that  millions  of  dollars  have  been  flowing 
steadily  into  the  treasuries  of  the  Astor  family.  It  surely  cannot 
be  said  that  the  present  owners  of  the  Astor  fortune  enjoy  it  as 
a  reward  for  frugalities  and  personal  effort. 

Our  largest  fortune  came  from  oil.  The  Standard  Oil  Com- 
pany has  distributed  more  than  $1,500,000,000  in  cash  dividends. 
Other  large  fortunes  have  been  made  from  timber,  others  from 
mining,  others  from  the  steel  industry.  These  great  fortunes  are 
all  based  on  the  exploitation  of  natural  resources — land,  timber, 
oil,  coal,  ore.  What  proportion  of  these  fortunes  is  due  to  ability, 
thrift,  and  self-denial?  What  proportion  is  due  to  the  control  of 
natural  resources,  in  the  creation  of  which  the  owners  had  no  part? 

Or  consider  the  great  fortunes  made  from  railways.  Notwith- 
standing the  ability  of  a  Harriman  or  a  Hill,  could  these  fortunes 
have  been  accumulated  apart  from  the  huge  land  grants  to  rail- 
ways by  the  United  States  Government— amounting  in  all  to 
215,000,000  acres? 

30 


DO  GREAT  FORTUNES  HELP  OR  HINDER? 

Many  of  our  great  fortunes  came  as  a  result  of  speculation  and 
manipulation  of  stocks.  On  numerous  occasions  millions  of  dollars 
have  >been  made  over  night  by  the  skillful  manipulation  of  the 
stock  market.  Consider  the  fortune  of  Andrew  Carnegie.  It  is 
generally  supposed  that  his  fortune  was  achieved  in  making  steel. 
So  far  as  the  bulk  of  his  fortune  was  concerned,  such  was  not 
the  case.  It  came  through  manipulating  the  stock  market  and 
especially  by  frightening  his  competitors  into  the  formation  of 
the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  and  the  payment  of  447  mil- 
lion dollars  for  his  stock,  which  only  a  little  while  before  he  had 
offered  to  Henry  Frick  and  William  Moore  for  158  millions,  and 
on  which  they  had  deposited  a  million  dollars  as  an  option.^- 

Huge  fortunes  were  made  from  war  industries.  The  duPont 
corporation  made  net  profits  of  nearly  200  million  dollars  in  three 
years  from  the  manufacture  of  munitions.  It  has  been  estimated 
that  the  corporations  of  the  United  States  made  excess  profits 
amounting  to  fourteen  billion  dollars  during  1916  over  and  above 
regular  pre-war  profits. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  practically  all  of  our  fortunes 
amounting  to  as  much  as  a  million  dollars  came  as  a  result  of 
control  of  natural  resources — land,  timber,  oil,  mining,  ores — or  as 
a  result  of  speculation  and  manipulation.  Income-tax  returns 
show  that  of  annual  incomes  above  $100,000  the  proportion  which 
comes  from  property  ranges  from  fifty-nine  to  ninety-six  per 
cent,  as  follows : 

Income-Tax  Returns  for  1918- 


Percent  of  total 
income  derived 
from  property 

59 

61 

59 

59 

61 

72 

70 

71 

96 


1  See  John  Moody,  "Masters  of  Capital,"  pp.  77,  83. 

"  United  States  Internal  Revenue,  "Statistics  of  Income  for  1913,"  p.  9. 

31 


Per  cent  of  total  income 

derived  from  personal 

Income  classes 

service  and  business 

$    100,000  to  $    150.000 

41 

150,000  to      200,000 

39 

200,000  to      250.000 

41 

250,000  to      300,000 

41 

300,000  to      500,000 

39 

500,000  to    1,000,000 

2% 

1,000,000  to    1,500,000 

30 

1,500,000  to   2,000,000 

29 

2,000,000  and  over 

4 

CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

It  is  true,  of  course,  that  a  few  great  fortunes  are  due  directly 
to  extraordinary  business  genius,  apart  from  the  control  of 
natural  resources.  The  contribution  to  social  progress  m^de  by 
such  men  is  really  worth  millions  of  dollars.  For  this  reason 
society  has  been  willing  that  these  men  should  receive  huge  for- 
tunes as  personal  rewards. 

Business  men,  however,  are  not  the  only  persons  who  render 
conspicuous  public  service  and  who  are  really  worth  millions  of 
dollars  to  a  community.  Consider  the  case  of  a  specialist  in  educa- 
tion, who  by  years  of  painstaking  research  has  developed  superior 
methods  of  teaching  and  who  is  thus  able  to  increase  the  effective- 
ness of  tens  of  thousands  of  teachers  and  through  them  raise  the 
general  level  of  intelligence  throughout  a  nation.  Or  consider  a 
physician,  who  at  the  risk  of  his  own  life  has  made  a  medical 
discovery  which  will  relieve  the  pain  of  thousands  of  sufferers. 
Or  consider  the  case  of  a  minister,  who  by  devotion  and  zeal  has 
been  the  means  of  transforming  useless  and  unhappy  men  and 
women  into  purified  and  consecrated  individuals  who  find  their  joy 
in  the  serving  of  others  and  in  the  building  of  a  new  and  better 
world. 

Are  these  men  less  valuable  to  society  than  business  men?  Is 
not  the  public  contribution  of  such  men  and  women  worth  many 
millions?  Why  should  business  men  receive  disproportionately 
large  financial  rewards  for  service  which  is  no  greater  than  that 
of  those  who  spend  themselves  in  other  fields?  At  what  point 
would  the  limitation  of  financial  reward  slow  up  the  initiative  and 
energy  of  business  men?  Which  is  the  greater  incentive  to 
achievement,  financial  reward  or  the  realization  of  public  service? 
How  big  a  financial  reward  can  society  afford  to  pay  business 
genius  ? 

With  regard  to  the  argument  that  a  business  man  is  entitled  to 
wealth  because  of  his  thrift,  energy,  and  self-denial,  does  he 
exercise  these  virtues  to  a  degree  which  is  not  true  of  men  in 
other  professions?  Does  the  rich  business  man  work  more  hours 
per  day  than  do  his  employes?  Do  the  thrift  and  self-denial  of 
the  business  man  exceed  that  of  the  college  professor  or  social 
worker?  Is  the  self-sacrifice  of  the  owner  of  a  great  fortune 
the  chief  cause  of  his  wealth?  In  the  case  of  a  man  who  saves 
$75,000  a  year  and  spends  $25,000  upon  himself  and  family,  can 
we  speak  of  this  man  as  self-sacrificing?  Is  there  not  a  "satura- 
tion" point  beyond  which  a  man  is  compelled  to  save  or  deliberately 
waste  his  substance?     Does  not  this  "saturation"  point  for  most 

Z2 


DO  GREAT  FORTUNES  HELP  OR  HINDER? 

persons  fall  below  $25,000  a  year?  Beyond  this  point,  is  saving 
to  be  regarded  as  self-renunciation? 

What  shall  we  say  concerning  the  argument  that  a  man  has  a 
"right"  to  the  proceeds  of  his  intelligence,  toil,  and  thrift?  Would 
it  be  justifiable  for  a  surgeon  to  withhold  a  discovery  which  would 
relieve  the  suffering  of  multitudes  until  assured  of  a  huge  financial 
reward?  Is  there  any  limit  to  the  amount  of  property  to  which 
an  individual  has  the  "right"  of  ownership?  In  a  world  where 
there  is  not  a  sirfficient  quantity  of  material  comforts  and  luxuries 
to  go  around,  does  an  individual  have  a  "right"  to  all  that  he  can 
lay  hands  upon,  even  if  he  keeps  within  legal  and  customary 
methods  of  business? 

What  shall  we  say  of  those  great  fortunes  which  were  inherited 
and  for  which  the  "superior  ability,  perseverance,  and  thrift"  of 
the  present  owners  were  in  no  wise  responsible?  From  the  view- 
point of  social  welfare,  what  is  the  justification  of  this  kind  of 
great  fortune? 

ARE  GREAT  FORTUNES  A  SOCIAL  ASSET? 

Perhaps  we  are  now  in  a  better  position  to  discuss  our  original 
question :  Do  great  fortunes  help  or  hinder  social  progress  ? 

(1)  There  are,  of  course,  very  many  advantages  that  come 
from  great  fortunes.  Wealth  makes  possible  the  greater  develop- 
ment of  personality,  through  leisure,  literature,  art,  music,  con- 
genial surroundings,  travel,  and  other  cultural  advantages.  Wealth 
also  makes  it  possible  for  a  man  to  provide  adequately  for  his 
family  and  to  give  his  children  superior  advantages. 

There  is  also  another  side  to  this  story.  Wealth  often  leads  to 
idleness  and  dissipation  and  is  a  great  barrier  to  the  development 
of  personality.  There  is  also  a  grave  doubt  as  to  whether  the 
training  received  by  children  in  the  homes  of  great  fortunes  is  as 
wholesome  and  valuable  as  the  training  received  by  children  in 
homes  that  are  only  comfortably  fixed.  In  this  connection,  former 
President  Eliot  of  Harvard  says :  "The  most  serious  disadvantage 
under  which  very  rich  people  labor  is  in  the  bringing  up  of  their 
children.  It  is  well-nigh  impossible  for  a  very  rich  man  to 
defend  his  children  from  habits  of  self-indulgence,  laziness,  and 
selfishness." 

The  teaching  of  Jesus  is  filled  with  warnings  against  the  perils 
of  great  riches.  He  once  startled  His  hearers  by  saying:  "How 
hardly  shall  they  that  have  riches  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God  1 

33 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

And  the  disciples  were  amazed  at  His  words.  But  Jesus  answereth 
again,  and  saith  unto  them,  Children,  how  hard  is  it  for  them  that 
trust  in  riches  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God !  It  is  easier 
for  a  camel  to  go  through  a  needle's  eye,  than  for  a  rich  man 
to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God."  Jesus  also  said :  "Lay  not 
up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  the  earth,  where  moth  and  rust 
consume,  and  where  thieves  break  through  and  steal."  And  again 
He  said :  "Take  heed,  and  keep  yourselves  from  all  covetousness : 
for  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things 
which  he  possesseth."  In  a  striking  parable  He  pictures  the 
doom  of  the  rich  man  who  said:  "This  will  I  do :  I  will  pull 
down  my  barns,  and  will  build  greater,  and  there  will  I  bestow 
all  my  grain  and  my  goods.  And  I  will  say  to  my  soul.  Soul, 
thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years,  take  thine  ease,  eat, 
drink,  be  merry."  The  parable  of  the  rich  young  ruler  also 
reveals  the  perils  of  wealth.  It  is  doubtful  whether  we  are  justi- 
fied in  saying  that  Jesus  always  condemned  the  holding  of  great 
wealth.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  He  recognized  the  perils  of 
wealth  and  frequently  warned  His  hearers  against  these  dangers. 

(2)  Great  fortunes  are  the  source  of  large  gifts  for  charity 
and  other  philanthropic  purposes.  Many  hospitals,  settlement 
houses,  homes  for  dependents,  colleges,  libraries,  and  Christian 
institutions  are  almost  wholly  dependent  upon  gifts  from  wealthy 
people.  There  is  no  doubt  that  an  immense  amount  of  good  has 
been  accomplished  by  the  gifts  of  such  men  as  Mr.  Carnegie  and 
Mr.  Rockefeller,  and  by  such  philanthropic  foundations  as  the 
General  Education  Board  and  the  Rockefeller  Foundation.  It  is 
true  that  in  many  towns  the  most  significant  improvements  are 
the  gifts  of  benevolent  citizens. 

Over  against  the  social  values  of  great  fortunes  must  be  placed 
the  social  dangers  of  concentrated  wealth.  Great  fortunes  make 
possible  the  control  of  the  press,  the  domination  of  educational 
institutions,  and  the  exerting  of  undue  influence  over  public 
opinion.  This  in  turn  is  responsible  for  legislation  which  is  more 
concerned  with  the  protection  of  the  property  of  the  rich  than 
the  lives  of  the  poor. 

(3)  A  third  advantage  of  great  fortunes  is  that  concentration 
makes  possible  large-scale  production  and  effective  administration. 
It  is  maintained  that  concentration  of  wealth  makes  possible  a 
greater  degree  of  surplus  and  provides  the  necessary  capital  for 
the  expansion  of  industry.  There  is  also  greater  mobility  of  capital 

34 


DO  GREAT  FORTUNES  HELP  OR  HINDER? 

when  it  is  concentrated.  Great  fortunes  make  possible  the  taking 
of  greater  risks  in  prospecting  for  oil  or  minerals,  in  experiment- 
ing with  new  machinery,  and  in  developing  new  industries.  It  is 
also  maintained  that  democracy  in  industry  menaces  efficiency  and 
that  only  by  means  of  autocratic  control  on  the  part  of  the  manage- 
ment can  industry  be  conducted  efficiently. 

Autocracy  in  industry  has  its  bad  side  as  well  as  its  good  side. 
The  concentration  of  wealth  usually  involves  absentee  ownership 
and  control.  Thousands  of  plants  and  mines  all  over  the  country 
are  controlled  from  Wall  Street  and  lower  Broadway.  Business 
under  absentee  ownership  is  more  and  more  impersonal.  As  a 
consequence  there  is  a  strong  tendency  to  neglect  the  human  ele- 
ment. A  distinguished  English  manufacturer  who  recently  visited 
the  United  States  expressed  great  adm.iration  for  the  mechanical 
efficiency  in  the  plants  inspected,  but  he  also  expressed  amazement 
at  the  neglect  in  most  of  them  of  the  human  factor. 

Moreover  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  investment  of  their  capital 
by  the  holders  of  great  fortunes  is  more  often  prompted  by 
speculative  interest  than  by  social  vision.  And  as  for  the  social 
surplus,  no  .one  knows  what  degree  of  production  democratic 
cooperation  would  yield. 

Great  fortunes  and  industrial  autocracy  are  a  very  grave  menace 
to  the  interests  of  the  workers.  The  individual  worker  is  abso- 
lutely at  the  mercy  of  huge  corporations  and  even  the  strongest 
unions  are  no  match  for  the  high  degree  of  concentration  of 
wealth  made  possible  by  great  fortunes. 

(4)  There  are  many  persons  who,  while  recognizing  the  danger 
of  the  concentration  of  wealth,  feel  nevertheless  that  government 
and  industry  are  safer  in  the  hands  of  the  intelligent  and  self- 
controlled  few  than  they  would  be  under  the  administration  of 
the  mediocre  and  undisciplined  masses.  They  recognize  that 
society  has  to  pay  a  high  price  for  the  leadership  of  the  rich,  but 
feel  that,  after  all,  it  is  a  good  investinent.  They  say  that  the 
country  as  a  whole  is  better  off  because  of  this  leadership.  It  is 
contended  that  the  mass  of  people  are  uneducated,  lacking  in 
intelligence  and  quite  incapable  of  assuming  responsibility  for  the 
control  of  industry.  The  results  of  the  army-draft  intelligence 
tests  are  cited  in  substantiation  of  this  contention.  Leading  articles 
in  current  periochcals  deal  with  "democratic  misgivings."  A 
genuine  fear  of  the  rule  of  the  common  people  is  widely  prevalent. 
So  far  as  democracy  in  industry  is  concerned  the  very  idea  strikes 

35 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

consternation  into  the  minds  of  many  people.  A  leading  engineer 
speaks  of  industrial  democracy  as  "jargon,"  and  quotes  with 
approval  this  sentiment :  "The  many  can  prosper  only  through 
the  participation  in  benefits  which,  in  the  way  alike  of  material 
comfort,  opportunity,  culture,  and  social  freedom,  would  be  pos- 
sible for  no  one  unless  the  many  submitted  themselves  to  the 
influence  or  authority  of  the  super-capable  few." 

Some  years  ago  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie  said:  "We  must  accept 
and  welcome,  therefore,  as  conditions  to  which  we  must  accommo- 
date ourselves,  great  inequality  of  environment ;  the  concentration 
of  business,  industrial  and  commercial,  in  the  hands  of  the  few; 
the  law  of  competition  between  these,  as  being  not  only  beneficial 
but  essential  to  the  future  progress  of  the  race The  mil- 
lionaire will  be  but  a  trustee  for  the  poor,  intrusted  for  a  season 
with  a  great  part  of  the  increased  wealth  of  the  community,  but 
administering   it   for   the   community   far  better  than   it   could  or 

would  have  done  for  itself The  condition  of  the  masses  is 

satisfactory  just  in  proportion  as  a  country  is  blessed  with  mil- 
lionaires."^ 

Over  against  this  doctrine  of  paternalism,  there  is  a  widespread 
belief  in  real  democracy.  Those  who  believe  in  democracy  say 
that  the  real  issue  is  not  the  material  prosperity  of  the  country 
so  much  as  it  is  one  of  the  status  and  relationship  of  peoples.  A 
strong  case  can  be  made  out  that  many  Negroes  were  better  fed, 
clothed,  and  housed  while  they  were  slaves  than  after  they  were 
freed.  This  fact  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  slavery  was 
better  than  freedom.  The  principles  involved  in  this  question  as 
to  whether  paternalism  is  better  than  democracy  are  in  a  very 
real  sense  parallel  with  those  in  the  issue  of  slavery.  The  funda- 
mental issue  is  that  of  personal  status. 

The  ideal  of  a  superior  people  controlling  wealth  and  privilege 
and  handing  down  favors  to  other  people  is  a  fundamental  con- 
tradiction of  the  worth  and  dignity  of  human  beings.  It  is  an 
absolute  denial  of  brotherhood.  The  continuation  of  paternalism 
can  have  no  other  result  than  the  creation  of  a  servile  people. 
This  is  too  great  a  price  to  pay  even  if  it  could  be  demonstrated 
beyond  doubt  that  paternalism  results  in  higher  production  and 
greater  industrial  ef^ciency.  After  all,  a  nation's  life  consists 
not  in  the  abundance  of.  things  possessed,  but  rather  in  the  quality 
of  its  men  and  women. 


"The  Gospel  of  Wealth,"  pp.  4,  18,   52. 

36 


DO  GREAT  FORTUNES  HELP  OR  HINDER,? 

It  has,  however,  by  no  means  been  demonstrated  beyond  doubt 
that  paternalism  is  socially  more  efficient  than  democracy.  Even 
in  the  realm  of  philanthropy  the  smaller  gifts  of  the  many  are 
better  than  the  large  gifts  of  the  few.  Under  paternalism  respon- 
sibility is  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  few,  with  the  consequence  that 
vast  creative  energy  is  left  undeveloped  because  of  lack  of  oppor- 
tunity and  responsibility.  We  learn  by  doing.  Development  comes 
through  expression.  Paternalism  has  the  inherent  weakness  that 
it  does  things  for  the  workers,  rather  than  thrusting  upon  them 
the  responsibility  of  doing  things  for  themselves.  It  is  still 
further  handicapped  by  reason  of  the  increasing  revolt  of  the 
workers  against  an  inferior  status.  The  growth  of  popular  educa- 
tion makes  paternalism  more  and  more  intolerable.  The  workers 
of  tomorrow  simply  will  not  exert  themselves  under  paternalism. 
Material  efficiency,  as  well  as  the  development  of  personality, 
demands  that  increasing  responsibility  be  placed  in  the  hands  of 
the  workers.  Democracy,  not  paternalism,  is  the  way  to  efficiency 
and  character. 

The  argument  against  paternalism  has  been  well  expressed  by 
former  President  Wilson  in  these  words :  "I  am  one  of  those  who 
absolutely  reject  the  trustee  theory,  the  guardianship  theory. 
....  I,  for  my  part,  do  not  want  to  be  taken  care  of.  I  would 
rather  starve  a  free  man  than  be  fed  a  mere  thing  at  the  caprice 
of    those    who    are    organizing    our    industry    as    they    please    to 

organize  it I  don't  care  how  benevolent  the  master  is  going 

to  be,  I  will  not  live  under  a  master Justice  is  what  we 

want,  not  patronage  and  pitiful  helpfulness There  is  no 

salvation  for  men  in  pitiful  condescension  of  industrial  masters. 
Guardians  have  no  place  in  a  land  of  freemen.  Prosperity  guar- 
anteed by  trustees  has  no  prospect  of  endurance. "^ 

In  the  present  chapter  we  have  not  attempted  to  say  whether 
or  not  modern  business  methods  are  contrary  to  the  principles  of 
Jesus.  The  ethics  of  speculation,  private  exploitation  of  natural 
resources,  unearned  increment,  and  such  questions  are  beyond  the 
range  of  this  chapter.  We  have  sought  to  raise  only  one  issue: 
Do  great  fortunes  help  or  hinder  social  progress?  This  question 
will  be  answered  as  we  answer  such  questions  as  these: 
Is  the  chief  end  of  society  the  production  of  goods  or  the  creation 

of  men  and  women  with  character  and  intelligence? 


'-  The  New  Freedom. 

37 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

Is  paternalism  better  adapted  than  democracy  to  develop  initiative 

and  self-reliance  on  the  part  of  the  workers? 
In  the  long  run,  does  progress  come  from  above  or  from  below? 
Is   the   vast    inequality   of    wealth   and   privilege   consistent   with 

brotherhood  ? 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THOUGHT  AND  DISCUSSION 

I.  Do  THE  Rich  Deserve  to  be  Rich? 

1.  What  instances  do  you  know  of  fortunes  which  were  secured 
by  superior  ability ;  what  instances  of  fortunes  built  up 
through  chance  or  fortunate  circumstances? 

2.  What  proportion  of  fortunes  are  due  to  superior  ability; 
what  proportion  to  chance? 

3.  A  doctor,  teacher,  minister,  or  scientist  is  not  rewarded  by 
society  in  proportion  to  that  received  by  business  men.  Is 
the  business  man's  contribution  to  society  enough  superior 
to  justify  his  higher  financial  return?    Why  do  you  think  so? 

4.  At  what  point  would  the  limitation  of  financial  reward  slow 
up  the  initiative  and  energy  of  business  men?  Which  is  the 
greater  incentive  to  achievement ;  financial  reward  or  the 
realization  of  public  service?  Is  there  sufficient  realization 
of  public  service  in  business  to  prove  an  incentive  for 
achievement  ? 

5.  How  big  a  reward  can  society  afford  to  pay  business  genius? 

6.  Should  reward  be  on  the  basis  of — 

a.  Ability. 

b.  Need. 

c.  Service. 

7.  Do  the  rich  deserve  to  be  rich? 

II.  Are  Great  Fortunes  a  Social  Asset? 

I.    Effect  upon  Human  Relations. 

a.  WTiat  instances  have  you  known,  if  any,  of  brotherly 
relations  between  a  very  rich  and  a  very  poor  man? 

b.  Is  it  possible  for  a  man  with  a  million-dollar  income 
and  a  poor  man  on  a  bare  subsistence  to  have  as  brotherly 
relations  as  if  they  had  more  nearly  equal  income?  Why 
or  why  not?  Does  wealth  rob  the  rich  of  human  rela- 
tionships ? 

38 


DO  GREAT  FORTUNES  HELP  OR  HINDER? 

2.  Effect  upon  Personality. 

a.  Wealth  makes  possible  the  greater  development  of  per- 
sonality through  cultural  advantages ;  but  it  often  leads 
to  idleness  and  dissipation  and  is  a  barrier. to  the  growth 
of  personality.  Upon  the  whole  would  you  say  it 
helped  or  hindered  the  growth  of  the  personality  of 
those  who  possess  it? 

b.  What  warnings  are  found  in  the  life  of  Jesus  regarding 
the  efifects  of  riches?  What  do  you  think  of  the  per- 
tinence of  these  warnings  today? 

3.  Effect  upon  Production. 

a.  It  is  claimed  that  great  fortunes  make  possible  a  reserve 
without  which  industrial  expansion  would  be  impossible. 
Are  great  fortunes  essential  to  industrial  growth,  or 
would  cooperation  between  a  large  group  of  smaller 
holders  be  equally  or  more  productive?  What  is  the 
basis  for  your  opinion? 

b.  What  are  the  dangers  industrially  of  concentration  of 
wealth  ? 

c.  If  great  fortunes  are  essential  to  production  but  the 
concentration  of  wealth  hurts  human  relations  and  the 
growth  of  personality,  would  yo.u  or  would  you  not  be 
willing  to  sacrifice  production  in  the  interest  of  human 
relations  ? 

4.  Bearing  'upon  Philanthropy. 

a.  Hospitals,  libraries,  and  other  public  institutions  are  de- 
pendent largely  upon  the  philanthropy  of  great  fortunes. 
Would  these  institutions  suffer  if  dependent  upon  smaller 
gifts  from  the  general  public? 

b.  What  is  the  public  attitude  toward  philanthropies  sup- 
ported by  great  fortunes?     Is  this  attitude  justifiable? 

c.  Which  is  the  best  for  all  concerned — the  institutions,  the 
public,  and  the  donors — that  such  institutions  should  be 
supported  by  a  few  large  gifts,  or  by  the  small  gifts  of 
the  many?    Why  do  you  think  so? 

5.  Effect  upon  Progress. 

a.     Placing  wealth   in  the  hands  of  the   few  is  claimed  to 
make  for  progress.    Which  makes  for  progress  the  more, 
to  get  things  done  well,  or  to  get  everybody  doing  things, 
even  if  they  are  not  done  so  well? 
39 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

b.  Democracy  implies  "a  chance  for  every  person  to  be  at 
his  best  and  recognition  of  every  person  for  all  he  is 
worth."  In  what  regards,  if  any,  does  the  present  dis- 
tribution of  financial  return  deny  this  principle? 

Are  Great  Fortunes  a  Social  Assets 


40 


CHAPTER  5 
Are  Luxuries  Antagonistic  to  Public  Welfare? 

Is  luxury  a  social  problem?  If  so,  what  shall  we  do  about  it? 
Before  we  can  answer  these  questions  intelligently,  we  must  take 
into  consideration  various  standards  of  living  and  determine 
whether  or  not  our  national  income  is  sufficient  to  enable  the 
entire  population  to  enjoy  the  higher  standards.  We  should  then 
analyze  the  consequences  of  luxury. 

HOW  MUCH  DOES  THE  FAMILY  NEED? 

This  is  the  sort  of  question  which  cannot  be  answered  dog- 
matically. It  all  depends  upon  the  person,  his  tastes,  capacities, 
duties,  and  environment.  There  are,  however,  certain  minimum 
needs  which  are  common  to  all  civilized  people.  The  requirements 
of  various  families  may  be  roughly  classified  as  subsistence  budgets, 
health  and  decency  budgets,  comfort  budgets,  and  luxury  budgets. 
Let  us  examine  the  items  included  in  these  various  budgets. 

A  number  of  governmental,  commercial,  and  private  agencies 
have  issued  minimum  subsistence  budgets. ^  One  of  the  very 
lowest  of  these  was  that  prepared  by  the  National  Industrial  Con- 
ference Board,  an  organization  maintained  by  a  group  of  manu- 
facturers' associations,  for  a  man,  wife,  and  three  children  under 
fourteen  years  of  age,  in  Fall  River,  Mass.,  in  October,  1919. 
The  figure  named  for  this  annual  budget  was  $1,267.76.  Reduced 
to  the  cost-of-living  level  at  the  beginning  of  1922  this  budget 
amounts  to  $1,167.46,  or  $22.45  per  week.  This  budget  allows 
$2.81  per  week,  or  $12.19  per  month,  for  rent.  The  amount  for 
fuel,  heat,  and  light  is  $1.66  per  week.  The  clothing  allowance 
for  the  entire  family  is  $3.37  per  week,  while  the  amount  provided 
for  food  is  $8.80  per  week,  or  ten  cents  each  per  meal  for  father 
and  mother  and  seven  cents  each  for  the  three  children.  The 
amount  allowed  for  all  other  expenses  of  the  family  is  $5.81  per 


'  Many  of  these  budgets  have  been  assembled  by  the  Bureau  of  Applied 
Economics,    of    Washington,    D.    C,    in    a    volume    entitled    "Standards    of 

Living,"   Bulletin  No.   7. 

41 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

week.     As  one  looks  closely  at  these  figures  he  wonders  how  a 
family  can  even  subsist  on  this  budget. 

For  a  minimum  "health  and  decency"  budget  let  us  examine  the 
one  prepared  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  for 
a  family  of  five  at  prices  prevailing  in  Washington,  D.  C,  in 
August,  1919,  when  prices  were  only  slightly  higher  than  at  the 
beginning  of  1922.  The  amount  of  this  budget  was  $2,262.47. 
The  various  items  are:  food  %772).9?i;  clothing  for  husband  $121.16, 
for  wife  $166.46,  for  eleven-year-old  boy  $96.60,  for  five-year-old 
girl  $82.50,  for  two-year-old  boy  $47.00;  housing,  fuel,  and  light 
$428 ;  miscellaneous  $546.82,  which  includes  $70  for  upkeep  of 
house  and  furnishings,  $104  for  laundry,  $32.92  cleaning  supplies, 
$80  for  health,  $111.50  for  insurance,  $45  for  carfare,  $8.40  for 
newspapers,  $20  for  amusements,  $13  for  church,  $10  for  labor 
organizations,  $52  for  incidentals. 

A  different  kind  of  budget  has  been  prepared  by  Mr.  Edward 
Evans,  Secretary  of  the  Social  Order  Committee  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Yearly  Meeting  of  Friends. ^  The  twofold  purpose  of  this 
suggested  budget  is  to  give  an  indication  as  to  the  real  needs  of 
a  family  for  full  development,  and  also  to  set  a  limit  beyond  which 
Christian  families  should  not  go  without  serious  examination  of 
each  contemplated  additional  expenditure.  The  suggested  items 
are : 

Housing  (semi-detached  house  with  reasonable  yard) $   900 

Wages  (one  maid,  with  additional  service  for  washing)  ....        750 

Fuel  and  light 250 

Food  (including  ice) 1,500 

Clothing      500 

Personal  equipment   (other  than  clothing) 50 

Household    equipment 100 

Telephone     50 

Education   (in  a  good  private  school) 500 

Doctor,  medicines,  and  nursing 200 

Carfare  and  travel  (other  than  vacation) 150 

Reading  and  recreation   (other  than  vacation) 100 

Vacation  (one  month  at  seashore  or  mountains) 200 

Insurance  (life  insurance  not  included) 75 

Inexpensive  automobile   (original  cost  included  and  appor- 
tioned over  life  of  car) 300 

Total     $5,625 

^  Published  in  The  World  Tomorrow,   Nov.,   1921. 

42 


ARE  LUXURIES  ANTAGONISTIC?    ^ 

IS  THERE  ENOUGH  TO  GO  AROUND? 

A  clear  case  can  be  made  out  that  any  family  could  find  legiti- 
mate use  for  an  income  of  at  least  $5,000  per  year.  Indeed,  it  is 
probably  true  to  say  that  $10,000  per  year  could  be  used  wisely 
and  without  waste  by  an  intelligent  family.  The  question  naturally 
arises  whether  our  national  income  is  sufficient  to  provide  either 
of  these  sums  for  every  family. 

A  recent  important  volume,  "The  Income  in  the  United  States," 
by  the  stafif  of  the  National  Bureau  of  Economic  Research,  an 
extraordinarily  able  and  impartial  group  of  statisticians,  enables 
us  to  answer  this  question  with  a  considerate  degree  of  accuracy. 
According  to  this  report  the  total  national  income  in  1918  was 
about  sixty-one  billion  dollars.  This  amount  is  not  all  available 
for  personal  use.  Approximately  ten  per  cent  goes  normally  for 
the  expenses  of  government. ^  An  additional  ten  per  cent  should 
be  reserved  for  expansion  and  development  of  new  industries. 
This  leaves  less  than  forty-nine  billions  for  personal  expenditures. 
If  this  forty-nine  billion  dollars  should  be  divided  equally  among 
the  approximately  twenty-one  million  families  in  the  United  States 
each  family  would  receive  about  $2,330.  These  figures  show 
the  utter  inadequacy  of  our  present  national  income  to  provide 
$5,000  per  year  for  every  family. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  number  of  persons  receiving  an  income 
as  high  as  $5,000  during  1918  was  only  842,458,  or  less  than  three 
per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  income  receivers.-  The  number  of 
persons  who  received  as  much  as  $2,000  for  1918  was  only  5,290,- 
649,  or  fourteen  per  cent  of  the  total  number.  The  startling  fact 
is  that  the  total  number  of  persons  receiving  less  than  $1,500 
during  that  year  was  27,056,344,  or  seventy-two  per  cent  of  the 
total  number;  while  the  number  receiving  less  than  $1,000  for  the 
year  was  14,558,224,  or  thirty-eight  per  cent  of  the  total  number. 
By  way  of  summary,  let  us  tabulate  these  figures : 


'  In  1920  the  total  cost  of  government  in  the  United  States — federal, 
state,  and  municipal — was  appro.ximately  nine  billion  dollars,  or  about 
thirteen  per  cent  of  the  national  income.  The  expenses  for  1920,  however, 
were  abnormal  on  account  of  a  continuation  of  war  expenses. 

-  "The  Income   in  the   United   States,"  p.    136. 


43 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 


Incomes   in 

THE   United   States   in 

9181 

Amount 
$5,000  or  above 
$2,000  or  above 
Less  than  $1,500 
Less  than  $1,000 

Number  of  persons 

842,458 

5,290,649 

27,056,344 

14,558,224 

Per  cent  of 
total  number 

3 
14 
72 
38 

The  fact  remains,  therefore,  that  although  a  comfortable  income 
of  $5,000  might  be  desirable  for  every  family,  it  can  be  secured 
now  only  at  the  expense  of  other  families. 

WHAT  ARE  THE  EFFECTS  OF  LUXURY? 

In  view  of  the  present  inadequacy  of  the  national  income  to 
make  it  possible  for  every  family  to  maintain  a  comfortable 
standard  of  living,  it  naturally  follows  that  excessive  luxuries  can 
be  enjoyed  by  the  few  only  as  others  are  deprived  of  necessities. 
The  consumption  of  expensive  luxuries  has'three  notable  effects: 
(1)  it  diverts  human  labor  from  tasks  which  are  socially  more 
productive;  (2)  it  diverts  capital  from  more  beneficial  uses;  (3) 
it  wastes  raw  materials  which  might  be  used  to  better  advantage. 
Let  us  notice  these  consequences  a  little  more  closely. 

(1)  Luxuries  divert  human  labor  into  less  useful  channels. 
This  is  true  in  spite  of  the  widespread  belief  that  the  production 
of  luxuries  "makes  work."  Let  us  consider  the  concrete  case 
of  a  rich  man  who  builds  a  country  estate  at  a  cost  of  $5,000,- 
000.  Included  in  the  items  of  expense  are  a  large  mansion, 
sunken  gardens,  golf  links,  polo  field,  and  a  large  artificial  lake. 
Around  the  whole  estate  is  placed  an  elaborate  iron  fence.  The 
completion  of  the  job  kept  hundreds  of  workers  occupied  for  a 
year.  After  the  millions  have  been  expended  and  the  country  home 
is  ready,  it  is  used  for  a  few  weeks  out  of  the  year  by  the  owner 
and  a  few  rich  friends.  The  public  is  rigorously  excluded. 
During  most  of  the  year  the  place  is  closed  and  deserted  save  by 
the  caretakers  and  servants.  Has  the  expenditure  of  these  five 
millions  "made  work"  and  proved  to  be  a  blessing  to  the  workers, 
or  has  it  diverted  human  labor  into  wasteful  channels? 

But  we  are  told  that  many  workers  are  constantly  out  of  a  job 
and  in  such  cases  luxury  production  is  a  godsend.    That  raises  the 


'The  Income  in  the  United  States,"  p.   136. 

44 


ARE  LUXURIES  ANTAGONISTIC? 

question :  Why  are  industrious  and  capable  workers  unable  to  find 
employment  that  is  socially  productive?  To  answer  this  question 
we  must  consider  the  second  and  third  consequences  of  luxury 
production. 

(2)  Luxuries  tie  up  capital  which  might  otherwise  be  used  in 
the  production  of  the  necessities  of  life.  Here  again  we  run  into 
a  popular  fallacy.  It  is  generally  supposed  that  luxury  spending 
is  a  good  thing  for  a  community,  since  "it  puts  money  into  circu- 
lation." Consider  again  the  case  of  the  $5,000,000  estate.  The 
money  was  certainly  put  into  circulation.  And  yet  a  large  part 
of  the  cost  of  the  estate  is  social  waste.  The  same  $5,000,000  and 
the  immense  amount  of  human  labor  might  have  gone  into  the 
erection  of  sorely  needed  homes  for  hundreds  of  families.  And 
that  leads  to  the  third  consequence  of  luxury  production. 

(3)  Luxuries  consume  raw  materials  which  might  have  been 
used  more  profitably.  To  continue  the  foregoing  illustrations  :  not 
only  the  invested  capital  and  the  human  labor,  but  also  the  raw 
material  used  in  the  erection  of  the  country  mansion  might  have 
been  used  in  the  building  of  homes  for  many  needy  families. 
Why  are  industrious  and  capable  workers  unable  to  find  employ- 
ment that  is  socially  productive?  One  of  the  important  reasons 
is  because  of  the  high  price  of  capital  and  raw  material,  and  this 
is  due  in  part  to  luxury  production.  The  supply  of  capital  and 
raw  materials  in  any  country  and  at  any  one  time  is  strictly 
limited.  If  a  considerable  portion  is  diverted  to  the  production 
of  luxuries  just  to  that  extent  capital  is  scarce  and  raw  materials 
are  expensive  for  use  in  production  which  is'  socially  valuable. 

That  which  is  true  in  the  case  of  a  $5,000,000  country  estate  is 
true  of  luxury  spending  in  general.  Money  spent  on  luxuries 
which  are  of  little  or  no  social  value,  increases  the  cost  of  the 
necessities  by  needlessly  consuming  human  labor,  capital,  and  raw 
materials. 

"The  man  who  spends  money  in  employing  laborers  on  things 
that  are  really  useless,"  says  ex-President  Hadley  of  Yale,  "causes 
food  to  be  consumed  by  a  group  of  workers  who  leave  nothing 
permanent  to  show  for  it,  and  lessens  the  amount  of  useful  things 
which  the  consumer  can  enjoy  in  the  immediate  future.  He  usually 
does  more  harm  than  the  man  who  saves  money  and  hoards  it ; 
for  while  hoarding  chiefly  affects  nominal  wages,  unwise  expendi- 
ture affects  real  wages. 

In  this  connection  Mr.  Hartley  Withers,  a  leading  English 
economist,    says :    "Since    the    producing    power    of    mankind    is 

45 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

limited,  every  superfluous  and  useless  article  that  they  buy,  every 
extravagance  that  they  commit,  prevents  the  production  of  the 
necessaries  of  life  for  those  who  are  at  present  in  need  of  thern. 
....  Since  the  output  of  goods  and  services  at  any  moment  is 
limited  by  the  amount  of  labor,  capital,  and  raw  material  that  is 
to  be  had,  and  since  we  have  seen  that  most  goods  and  nearly  all 
services  are  more  or  less  quickly  consumed,  it  follows  that  the 
divisible  wealth  of  the  world  is  like  a  great  heap,  the  size  of 
which  cannot  be  enlarged,  at  will,  though  the  articles  of  which  it 

is  composed  may  vary In  other  words,  every  purchase  of  an 

article  of  luxury  stiffens  the  price  of  articles  of  necessity,  and 
makes  the  struggle  of  the  poor  still  harder."^ 

(4)  The  extent  of  expenditures  for  luxuries.  To  realize  how 
serious  is  the  problem  of  luxuries,  we  must  get  the  facts  as  to  its 
extent.  A  first  step  will  be  to  see  how  many  persons  have  the 
financial  capacity  for  excessive  luxuries.  The  following  table 
shows  the  number  of  large  incomes  in  the  United  States  during 
1918: 

Large  Incomes  in  the  United  States  in  19182 

Amount  of 
Income  Number  of  persons  income 

$1,000,000  and    above  152  $   316,319,219 

$500,000  to  $1,000,000  369  220,120,399 

$200,000  to  $500,000  1,976  570,019,200 

$100,000  to  $200,000  4,945  671,565,821 

$50,000  to  $100,000  14,011  951,529,576 

$25,000  to  $50,000  41,119  1,398,785,687 

$10,000  to  $25,000  192,062  2,808,290,063 

Totals  254,634  .$6,936,629,965 

The  fact  that  these  254,000  persons  with  an  income  above  $10,000 
received  a  total  income  in  1918  of  nearly  seven  billion  dollars, 
gives  an  idea  of  the  possibility  of  luxury  spending.  And,  of 
course,  luxury  spending  is  not  confined  to  the  $10,000  class  and 
above.'  The  number  of  persons  who  received  an  income  between 
$3  000   and  $10,000   was   1,970,991,  with  a  total   income   of   nine 


1  Hartley  Withers,  "Poverty  and  Waste,"  pp.   19,  20,  21. 

2  "The  Income  in  the  United  States,"  p.  136. 

46 


ARE  LUXURIES  ANTAGONISTIC?    ^ 

billions. 1  If  we  allow  $3,000  per  year  for  the  cost  of  actual 
necessities  and  minimum  comforts  of  each  of  the  2,225,625  families 
represented  in  the  income  classes  above  $3,000,  we  discover  that 
the  total  amount  remaining  for  luxuries  and  savings  is  more 
than  nine  billions.  If  we  add  to  this  the  amount  spent  for  luxuries 
by  single  men  who  receive  less  than  $3,000  and  by  families  which 
do  without  necessities  and  comforts  in  order  to  secure  luxuries, 
we  see  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  our  national  income  is 
available  for  luxury  production. 

There  is  another  angle  from  which  we  may  gain  light  as  to  the 
extent  of  luxuries,  and  that  is  by  examining  production  statistics 
of  items  classed  as  luxuries.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  has 
estimated  that  in  1919  the  people  of  the  United  States  purchased 
luxuries  as  follows  ;i 

Joy  riding,  pleasure  resorts,  races,  etc $  3,000,000,000 

Luxurious  services    3,000,000,000 

Excessively      high-priced      wearing     apparel, 

carpets,  and  rugs  1,500,000,000 

Cigars,  cigarettes,  tobacco,  snuff  2,110,000,000 

Perfumery,  face  powder,  cosmetics  750,000,000 

Soft  drinks   350,000,000 

Candy     1,000,000,000 

Chewing  gum  50,000,000 

Jewelry     500.000,000 


$12,260,000,000 


With  regard  to  the  amount  spent  for  pleasure  automobiles — 
apart  for  expenditures  for  commercial  automobiles — a  leading 
engineer  says,-  "I  have  no  doubt  that  automobiling  as  a  luxury 
was  costing  the  American  people  at  the  rate  of  upward  of  $3,000,- 
000,000  per  annum  in  1919."  It  has  been  estimated  that  there  are 
6,000  women  in  New  York  who  spend  each  year  as  much  as 
$6,000  on  their  bodily  garments.  A  visit  to  the  exclusive  establish- 
ments on  Fifth  Avenue  makes  it  easy  to  believe  that  this  estimate 
is  not  an  exaggeration.    A  stroll  along  Fifth  Avenue  or  Broadway 


1  Literary  Digest,  July  10,  1920,  p.  122.  In  his  report  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  included  many  items  not  listed  above,  since  they  are  not 
usually  classed  as  luxuries.     His  total  was  twenty-two  billion  dollars. 

*  W.  R.   Ingalls,  "Wealth  and  Income  of  the  American   People,"  p.  217. 

47 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

near  Times  Square  enables  one  to  see  numerous  show-windows 
in  which  single  articles  of  jewelry  valued  at  from  $1,000  to 
$10,000  are  displayed. 

x\mong  the  excessive  amounts  spent  for  luxuries  in  recent 
years  are  the  following :  $7,000,000  for  a  mansion  with  121  rooms 
for  one  family;  $300,000  for  a  pipe  organ;  $50,000  for  a  piano; 
$10,000  for  a  cradle;  $38,000  for  a  washstand;  $65,000  for  a 
dressing  table ;  $20,000  for  a  hat ;  $1,000  for  a  hatpin ;  $75,000  for 
opera  glasses;  $280,000  for  a  string  of  pearls;  $600,000  for  a 
diamond  necklace ;  $14,000  for  an  automobile  "with  an  interior 
inlaid  with  silver  in  quartered  mahogany  and  upholstered  in  fawn 
suede  and  morocco" ;  $30,000  for  a  still  more  elaborate  automobile. 

(5)  Summary  of  consequences.  The  economic  effects  of  exces- 
sive luxury  production  undoubtedly  are :  the  diverting  of  human 
labor,  capital,  and  raw  material  from  production  which  would  be 
socially  more  valuable.  Luxuries  are  in  part  responsible  for  high 
prices  of  necessities,  and  high  prices  are  responsible  for  enforced 
unemployment. 

Some  years  ago  at  a  fashionable  party  the  host  distributed 
cigarettes  rolled  in  hundred-dollar  bills.  An  outcry  was  raised 
against  such  waste.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  burning  of 
hundred-dollar  bills  is  socially  less  wasteful  than  most  forms  of 
luxury  spending.  Hundred-dollar  bills  are  only  "wealth  tokens" 
and  are  easily  replaced,  whereas  most  luxuries  represent  the  waste 
of  real  wealth  upon  which  human  labor,  capital,  and  raw  materials 
have  been  expended. 

There  are  other  consequences  of  luxury  spending  than  those  of 
an  economic  nature.  The  effects  of  luxuries  upon  the  personal 
habits  and  characters  of  those  who  indulge  must  be  considered. 
Even  more  serious  arc  the  effects  upon  human  relations.  Between 
those  who  enjoy  excessive  luxuries  and  those  who  have  at  best 
only  the  bare  necessities  of  life,  a  great  gulf  is  fixed.  It  is  idle 
to  talk  of  overcoming  class  feelings — suspicion,  bitterness,  and 
enmity — so  long  as  this  gulf  exists.  The  workers  will  never 
render  their  most  efficient  service  so  long  as  they  feel  that  the 
proceeds  of  industrj'  are  being  used  to  provide  excessive  luxuries 
for  employers  and  stockholders.  It  is  unquestionably  true  that 
much  of  the  "slacking"  and  loafing  on  the  job  is  due  to  the 
refusal  of  the  workers  to  exert  themselves  unnecessarily  in  order 
to  pile  up  luxuries  for  the  "bosses."  So  long  as  there  is  as  much 
basis  for  this  belief  as  at  the  present  time,  it  seems  futile  to 
expect  efficient  production  or  harmonious  relations  in  industry. 

48 


ARE  LUXURIES  ANTAGONISTIC?    \ 

HOW  DETERMINE  AN  EQUITABLE  DISTRIBUTION 
OF  LUXURIES? 

In  view  of  the  definite  limits  to  production  at  the  present  time, 
four  possibiHties  are  open  to  society:  (1)  to  increase  production 
to  the  point  where  there  will  be  enough  luxuries  for  everybody ; 
(2)  to  cease  entirely  all  luxury  production;  (3)  to  provide 
luxuries  for  a  small  class  of  rich  people;  (4)  to  bring  about  a 
more  equitable  distribution  by  limiting  the  luxury  expenditures 
of  the  rich. 

The  first  proposal  will  be  treated  elsewhere  in  this  study.  Just 
here  let  us  say  that  while  increased  production  is  possible  and  will 
probably  be  realized  it  does  not  seem  likely  that  for  several 
generations  the  increase  will  be  sufficient  to  insure  luxuries  for 
all.  It  will  require  a  considerable  degree  of  increased  production 
to  provide  even  the  bare  necessities  and  minimum  comforts  for 
the  huge  proportion  of  people  who  now  lack  these  essentials. 

With  regard  to  the  second  suggestion,  it  would  seem  to  be 
socially  undesirable  to  eliminate  all  luxuries,  even  if  this  were 
possible.     There  seems  to  be  no  solution  in  this  direction. 

The  third  possibility,  providing  luxuries  for  a  few  rich  people, 
is  the  practice  followed  throughout  history,  and  is  the  one  most 
widely  accepted  today  in  comfortable  circles.  It  is  contended  that 
if  there  are  not  enough  luxuries  to  go  around,  surely  the  available 
supply  should  go  to  the  more  successful  group  in  society.  Only 
those  should  have  luxuries  who  "can  afford  them."  It  is  pointed 
out  that  most  of  the  great  achievements  of  mankind  come  from 
this  upper  class. 

Ancient  Greece  is  cited  as  a  conspicuous  illustration  of  the  value 
of  a  cultured  upper  class.  One  authority  goes  so  far  as  to  say 
that  he  would  rather  have  spent  ten  years  in  Athens  in  the  days 
of  Pericles  than  to  live  a  hundred  years  in  modern  mediocrity. 
One  cannot  refrain,  however,  from  asking  the  human  cost  of 
maintaining  an  upper  class  in  leisure  and  luxury  while  the  Par- 
thenon and  other  glories  of  Athens  were  being  produced.  The 
records  show  that  there  were  about  as  many  slaves  as  there  were 
free  people,  while  the  number  of  citizens  was  very  much  smaller. 

Today  the  possessions  and  luxuries  of  the  rich  are  counted 
among  the  chief  glories  of  America.  Again  we  are  concerned  as 
to  the  human  cost  and  as  to  the  ratio  of  rich  and  poor.    The  figures 

49 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

are  available.^  For  every  income  above  $25,000  there  are  580 
below  $5,000;  for  every  income  above  $100,000  there  are  4,700 
below  $3,000;  for  every  income  above  $1,000,000  there  are  177,000 
below  $1,500  per  year. 

The  final  possibility  is  limiting  the  luxury  expenditures  of  the 
rich.  Does  the  existing  inequality  of  distribution  represent  the 
actual  difference  in  ability,  perseverance,  and  thrift?  Is  the  inter- 
est of  the  whole  people  best  served  by  concentrating  great  wealth 
in  the  hands  of  a  few? 

The  follower  of  Jesus  will  turn  again  to  the  record  for  light. 
What  does  Jesus  say  about  luxuries?  One  of  the  effective  ways 
of  teaching  is  by  action.  In  this  connection  the  example  of  Jesus 
is  significant.  He  did  not  live  a  life  of  ease  and  luxury.  Quite 
the  reverse.  His  chief  concern  was  not  for  His  own  comfort,  but 
rather  for  the  welfare  of  others.  On  one  occasion  He  reminded 
His  hearers  that  He  "came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to 
minister,  and  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many."  He  also  said, 
"For  their  sake  I  consecrate  myself." 

Jesus  issued  a  stirring  challenge  to  His  hearers  to  live  this 
same  kind  of  life;  "If  any  man  would  come  after  me,  let  him 
deny  himself,  take  up  his  cross,  and  follow  me."  Love  is  to  be 
dominant  in  human  relations.  The  second  great  commandment  is  : 
"Thou  slialt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  In  the  parable  of  the 
Good  Samaritan  one's  neighbor  is  defined  as  any  person  who  is 
in  need.  On  another  occasion  Jesus  said :  "A  new  commandment 
I  give  unto  you,  that  ye  love  one  another ;  even  as  I  have  loved 
you,  that  ye  love  one  another.  By  this  shall  all  men  know  that 
ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have  love  one  to  another." 

The  apostle  Paul  expressed  the  same  idea  in  these  words :  "Now 
we  that  are  strong  ought  to  bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak,  and 
not  to  please  ourselves."  And  again :  "Bear  ye  one  another's 
burden,  and  so  fulfil  the  law  of  Christ." 

In  the  parable  of  the  Last  Judgment  we  see  pictured  the  doom 
of  those  who  neglect  the  needy :  "For  I  was  hungry,  and  ye  did 
not  give  me  to  eat ;  I  was  thirsty,  and  ye  gave  me  no  drink ;  I 
was  a  stranger  and  ye  took  me  not  in ;  naked,  and  ye  clothed  me 
not ;  sick,  and  in  prison,  and  ye  visited  me  not." 

Jesus  uttered  many  warnings  against  easy  living  and  neglect 
of  those  in  need :  "But  take  heed  to  yourselves  in  case  your 
hearts  get  overpowered  by  dissipation  and  drunkenness  and  world 


'"The  Income  in  the  United  States,"  p.  136. 

50 


ARE  LUXURIES  ANTAGONISTIC?     \ 

anxieties."  The  apostle  Paul  expressed  his  attitude  toward  the 
habits  of  life  that  cause  others  to  stumble  in  these  words:  "If 
meat  causeth  my  brother  to  stumble  (referring  to  the  controversy 
concerning  the  eating  of  meat  which  had  been  offered  to  idols), 
I  will  eat  no  flesh  for  evermore,  that  I  cause  not  my  brother  to 
stumble." 

In  the  Epistle  of  James  we  are  reminded  that  love  for  the  needy 
must  express  itself  in  deeds:  "Suppose  some  brother  or  sister  is 
ill-clad  and  short  of  daily  food;  if  any  of  you  says  to  them, 
'Depart  in  peace !  Get  warm,  get  food,'  without  supplying  their 
bodily  needs,  what  use  is  that?" 

In  the  light  of  the  very  clear  teaching  of  Jesus  and  His  disciples, 
should  a  Christian  live  in  ease  and  luxury?  Can  there  be  real 
brotherhood  between  those  who  dwell  in  mansions  and  those  who 
are  housed  in  slums?  Does  a  Christian  love  his  brother  as  him- 
self when  he  lives  in  luxury  from  rents  and  dividends,  while  others 
through  toil  are  unable  to  rise  above  need  and  squalor? 

The  situation  is  yet  more  compelling.  Upon  the  follower  of 
Jesus  rests  responsibility  for  the  world-wide  expansion  of  the 
Kingdom  of  our  Lord.  The  Christian  in  America  cannot  evade 
responsibility  for  proclaiming  the  message  of  abundant  life  in 
the  Orient,  the  Dark  Continent,  and  the  islands  of  the  sea.  Men 
and  women  are  needed  everywhere.  And  so  is  money.  The 
expenditure  of  even  a  few  dollars  in  the  more  destitute  places  of 
the  earth  will  actually  save  human  lives — each  of  which  is  of 
infinite  worth  in  the  sight  of  God.  In  other  spots,  dollars  mean 
doctors,  teachers,  preachers — the  passage  from  physical  infirmity, 
mental  blindness,  and  spiritual  darkness  into  health,  knowledge, 
and  a  more  abundant  life.  With  the  world  in  physical  hunger  and 
spiritual  destitution,  with  the  tragic  need  for  men  and  money  every- 
where, is  it  not  supreme  disloyalty  to  Jesus  and  an  absolute  denial 
of  His  Way  of  Life  for  a  Christian  to  live  in  ease  and  luxury  ? 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THOUGHT  AND  DISCUSSION 

1.  The  following  is  a  budget  estimate  of  what  is  essential  to 
complete  living:  (See  page  42.) 

Housing  (semi-detached  house  with  reasonable  yard) $   90C 

Wages  (one  maid,  with  additional  service  for  washing)    ..  750 

Fuel  and  light    250 

Food  (including  ice)    1,500 

51 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

Clothing    500 

Personal  equipment  (other  than  clothing)    50 

Household  equipment   100 

Telephone     50 

Education  (in  a  good  private  school)    500 

Doctor,  medicines,  and  nursing   200 

Carfare  and  travel  (other  than  vacation)    150 

Reading  and  recreation  (other  than  vacation)    100 

Vacation   (one  month  at  seashore  or  mountains) 200 

Insurance  (life  insurance  not  included)    75 

Inexpensive  automobile  (original  cost  included  and  appor- 
tioned over  life  of  car)    300 


Total 


$5,625 


(a)  Which  of  these  items  would  you  question  as  not  being 
essential  to  maximum  efficiency?  Which  as  not  being  essential  to 
complete  and  wholesome  living? 

(b)  What  budget  items  would  you  add,  if  any,  as  being  essen- 
tial to  maximum  efficiency?  As  essential  to  complete  and  whole- 
some living? 

(c)  Which,  if  any,  of  the  above  items  would  you  call  luxuries^ 
Why  ? 

2.  At  which  of  the  following  levels  do  you  think  it  would  be 
most  desirable  for  a  family  with  three  children  to  live  : 

(Put  on  blackboard.) 

g.  Extravagance     $30,000  per  year 

f.  Luxury    15,000  per  year 

e.  Plenty     8,000  per  year 

d.  Enough  for  complete  living   5,600  per  year 

c.  Reasonable  comforts   3,500  per  year 

b.  Health  and  decency   2,200  per  year 

a.  Fair   standard    1,700  per  year 

(There  will  probably  be  discussion  as  to  whether  the  estimated 
amounts  are  accurate.  Let  there  be  discussion  on  that  and  change 
amounts  where  there  seems  basis  for  same  and  a  majority  senti- 
ment.) 

3.  Which,  if  any,  of  the  levels  of  living  are  inconsistent  for  a 
Christian  ? 

52 


ARE  LUXURIES  ANTAGONISTIC?      ^ 

4.  Which  of  the  following  would  you  call  luxuries  and  which 
essential  to  a  wholesome  and  efficient  life? 

Piano. 

Radio. 

Ford. 

Vacuum  cleaner. 

Electric  washing  machine. 

Magazines. 

Books. 

Entertainments. 

5.  What  do  you  mean  by  luxuries? 

6.  What  makes  the  difference  of  opinion  as  to  what  are  luxuries 
and  what  are  necessities? 

7.  The  data  seem  to  indicate  that  the  production  of  luxuries  is 
one  of  the  causes  of  the  high  prices  of  ordinary  comforts  of  life 
due  to  the  diversion  of  labor,  capital  and  raw  materials.  If  there 
were  fewer  luxuries  produced  would  folks  be  better  off?  Why 
do  you  think  so? 

8.  What  are  the  effects  of  luxuries?  Upon  the  whole  are  they 
antagonistic  to  the  public  good?  At  what  point  do  a  person's 
expenditures  become  antagonistic  to  the  public  good? 

9.  When  there  is  not  enough  to  go  around,  is  a  person  justified 
in  taking  all  he  needs?  If  not,  why  not?  If  so,  under  what 
conditions  ? 

10.  What  degree  of  luxury  production  is  justifiable? 

11.  How  would  you  determine  the  equitable  distribution  of 
luxuries  ? 


53 


CHAPTER  6 

Does  Modern  Industry  Help  or  Hinder  the 
Full  Development  of  Human  Beings? 

Is  the  modern  economic  system  more  favorable  to  the  full 
development  of  human  beings  than  any  preceding  system?  What 
are  the  benefits  of  modern  industry?  What  are  its  human  costs? 
In  what  respects  is  it  in  accord  with  the  ethical  principles  of 
Jesus?    Wherein  does  it  violate  His  teaching? 

THE  BENEFITS  OF  MODERN  INDUSTRY 

1.  Increased  Production.  The  quantity  of  goods  and  services 
possessed  by  the  American  people  today  has  never  been  equaled 
by  any  great  nation  in  human  history.  For  this  condition  the 
extraordinary  natural  resources  of  the  country  are  in  large  part 
responsible.  These  natural  resources,  however,  could  not  have 
been  so  highly  developed  without  the  aid  of  modern  machines  and 
industrial  organization.  The  productive  power  of  human  labor 
has  been  enormously  increased  during  the  past  century. 

As  late  as  1830  small  grain  was  sown  broadcast,  reaped  with  a 
cradle,  and  threshed  with  a  flail  or  trodden  out  by  horses  and  oxen. 
Hay  was  mown  with  a  scythe,  and  raked  and  pitched  by  hand. 
Corn  was  planted  and  covered  by  hand,  and  cultivated  mainly  with 
a  hoe.  The  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  has  esti- 
mated that  the  amount  of  human  labor  required  to  produce  a 
bushel  of  wheat  was  on  the  average  only  ten  minutes  in  1896,  as 
compared  with  three  hours  and  thirty  minutes  in  1830. 

In  the  making  of  clothes  there  has  also  been  a  tremendous  ad- 
vance. Early  in  the  nineteenth  century  a  woman  could  spin  twelve 
skeins  of  thread  in  ten  hours,  producing  a  thread  a  little  more 
than  ten  miles  in  length.  Now  she  can  attend  to  600  or  800 
spindles,  each  of  which  spins  5,000  yards  per  day,  or  with  800 
spindles,  4,000,000  yards,  or  nearly  21,000  miles  of  thread  a  day. 

54 


DOES  MODERN  INDUSTRY  HELP  OR  HINDER? 

Formerly  a  woman  could  knit  a  pair  of  stockings  per  day ;  now  a 
boy  can  attend  to  twelve  machines  which  will  knit  a  complete 
800  pairs  per  day.  A  modern  cotton-spinning  machine  tended  by 
one  man  and  two  boys,  can  do  as  much  work  as  4,000  spinners 
could  do  in  1750.  "The  spindles  of  Lancashire  today  produce  as 
much  as  would  have  required  the  services  of  200  million  men 
unaided  by  machinery."  "Before  Whitney's  invention  it  is  said 
that  the  labor  of  one  person  was  required  for  about  ten  hours  to 
pick  the  seeds  from  one  and  a  half  pounds  of  cotton  lint;  at  the 
present  time  one  machine  will  gin  from  1,500  to  7,500  pounds  of 
lint  in  the  same  time." 

It  is  true,  of  course,  that  we  must  take  into  account  the  labor 
expended  in  the  making  of  these  machines.  But  after  due  allow- 
ance has  been  made,  the  fact  still  remains  that  modern  machinery 
has  enormously  increased  production,  with  the  consequence  that 
the  people  of  the  United  States  have  now  attained  a  material 
standard  of  life  which  has  never  been  equaled  by  the  mass  of 
people  in  any  previous  age.  While  the  quantity  of  necessities  and 
comforts  is  still  inadequate  to  provide  for  the  real  needs  of  all 
the  people,  it  is  probably  true  that  the  proportion  of  people  in 
the  United  States  today  who  are  in  physical  need  is  less  than  in 
any  great  nation  in  history. 

2.  Saving  of  Human  Energy.  Modern  machines  perform 
many  laborious  tasks  that  were  formerly  done  by  human  muscles. 
The  amount  of  human  energy  saved  by  modern  machines  is 
astounding.  At  the  Waterside  Station  of  the  New  York  Edison 
Company  is  a  single-unit  turbine,  fifty-seven  feet  long,  twenty  feet 
wide,  and  fourteen  feet  high,  weighing  975,000  pounds,  which  de- 
velops 40,000  horse-power.  The  significance  of  this  turbine  as 
a  labor-saving  device  will  be  emphasized  if  we  recall  that  "a 
muscular  man  usually  develops  one-tenth  of  a  horse-power,  but 
cannot  keep  this  up  all  day,"  which  means  that  one  turbine  pro- 
duces energy  equal  to  that  of  400,000  husky  workmen. 

Throughout  the  Orient  and  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  vessels 
are  still  loaded  with  coal  by  swarms  of  coolies  with  their  buckets. 
Recently  a  locomotive  crane  has  been  introduced  which  enables  one 
man  with  clam-shell  buckets  to  handle  coal  at  the  rate  of  sixty 
or  seventy  tons  per  hour.  Recent  developments  have  made  it 
possible  to  eliminate  almost  entirely  the  use  of  human  labor  in 
the  delivery  of  coal  to  the  ships  and  the  distribution  of  it  in  the 
bunkers.     Elevators  are  now  in  operation  which  can  deliver  from 

55 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

100  to  150  tons  of  coal  per  hour  direct  from  the  lighter  to  the 
bunkers.  Grain  elevators  have  an  average  unloading  capacity  from 
cars  of  200,000  bushels  per  ten-hour  day,  an  unloading  capacity 
from  river  barges  of  60,000  bushels  per  hour.  A  little  while  ago 
a  pair  of  cargo-handHng  cranes  unloaded  2,103  barrels  of  asphalt 
in  eight  and  one-half  hours.  Recently  a  new  250-ton  electric 
crane  lifted  a  complete  locomotive  of  the  Mallett  type,  weighing 
232  tons,  and  shunted  it  back  and  forth  over  the  floor  of  the  shop 
as  though  it  were  a  toy.  The  crane  held  the  huge  locomotive 
suspended  for  over  two  hours,  and  finally  set  it  back  upon  the 
tracks  again.  One  electric  magnet  handled  141,200  pounds  of 
foundry  iron  in  forty-five  minutes.  Eight  automatic  ore  unloaders 
recently  unloaded  seven  boats  having  a  total  capacity  of  70,000 
tons  in  twenty-two  hours.  A  machine  has  been  developed  for 
tiering  piles  of  sugar  bags  to  a  height  of  twenty-five  feet,  at  the 
rate  of  500  to  600  bags  per  hour,  using  six  men  as  against  the 
thirty  men  formerly  required  to  do  the  same  work.  Two  gigantic 
circular  saws  have  recently  been  installed  in  a  western  shingle 
factory,  each  of  which  is  nine  feet  in  diameter,  weighing  755 
pounds,  and  traveling  at  the  rate  of  130  miles  per  hour,  having 
a  capacity  that  is  almost  incredible.  The  modern  steam  shovel 
operated  by  one  man  will  do  more  work  in  one  day  than  sixty  men 
with  pick  and  shovel  do  in  the  same  time. 

A  bulletin  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  contains  this  startling 
information :  "To  accomplish  the  work  done  annually  in  the  United 
States,  or  at  least  the  equivalent  in  such  kind  as  men  could  per- 
form, would  require  the  labor  of  three  billion  hard-working  slaves. 
The  use  of  power  gives  to  each  man,  woman,  and  child  in  this 
country  the  service  equivalent  to  fifty  servants." 

According  to  Dr.  Thomas  T.  Reed,  of  the  United  States  Bureau 
of  Mines,  no  other  country  has  one-fiftieth  part  of  the  total  energy 
resources  of  the  United  States. 

3.  Saving  of  Time.  Modern  industry  makes  possible  a  greater 
amount  of  leisure  time.  Leisure  was  formerly  secured  only  at  the 
expense  of  slave  labor.  The  person  who  has  to  depend  upon  his 
own  energy  for  the  support  of  himself  and  his  family  found  most 
of  his  time  consumed  in  the  bare  struggle  for  existence.  With 
the  aid  of  modern  machines,  men  now  accomplish  in  a  few  hours 
what  formerly  required  days  and  consequently  have  greater  oppor- 
tunities for  leisure. 

Not  only  so,  improved  transportation  facilities  enable  the  man 

56 


DOES  MODERN  INDUSTRY  HELP  OR  HINDER? 

of  today  to  move  about  with  a  speed  which  would  have  seemed 
incredible  to  his  grandfather.  Twenty  miles  a  day  used  to  be  the 
average  for  the  traveler.  The  late  William  E.  Dodge  told  a 
.  friend  that  his  grandfather,  a  resident  of  New  York  City,  once 
requested  the  prayers  of  his  church  as  he  was  about  to  undertake 
"the  long  and  perilous  journey  to  Rochester."  Modern  steamships, 
express  trains,  and  aeroplanes  have  revolutionized  transportation. 
Modern  machines  and  industrial  organization,  by  enormously 
increasing  production,  lifting  heavy  burdens  from  human  shoulders, 
and  the  saving  of  time,  have  made  possible  a  richer  and  fuller  life 
for  the  whole  people  than  was  ever  true  before.  A  broader  base 
has  been  laid  upon  which  the  "good  life"  may  be  built. 

HUMAN  COSTS  OF  MODERN  INDUSTRY 

1.  Health  and  Safety.  Over  against  the  enormous  benefits 
of  modern  industry  are  a  number  of  excessive  human  costs.  The 
United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  recently  issued  a  com- 
pendium of  industrial  hazards.  Four  classes  of  dangers  were 
listed,  (a)  Dust,  causing  inflammatory  conditions  of  the  eye,  ear, 
nose,  and  throat,  ulceration,  and  tuberculosis ;  especially  serious 
in  the  following  industries — marble  and  stone,  mining,  textile, 
grinding,  polishing,  glass,  pottery,  and  chemical  industries,  (b) 
Heat,  including  cold  and  variations  in  temperature,  causing 
anemia,  general  debility,  catarrh,  rheumatism,  cancer,  and  prema- 
ture old  age ;  especially  serious  in  iron  and  steel  mills,  glass  fac- 
tories, laundries,  bakeries,  ice  manufactories,  kitchens,  and  engine 
rooms,  (c)  Humidity,  including  moisture  and  dampness,  causing 
diseases  of  the  respiratory  passages,  neuralgic  and  rheumatic 
affections ;  especially  serious  in  paper  mills,  tanneries,  sugar  re- 
fineries, canneries,  steam  vulcanizing,  paint  manufacturing,  (d) 
Poisons,  twenty- four  industrial  poisons  are  listed,  including  ammo- 
nia, arsenic,  chlorine  gas,  lead,  mercury,  nitrous  gases,  phosphorus, 
sulphur.  A  list  of  more  than  500  hazardous  occupations  has  been 
prepared  by  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 

A  few  years  ago  Dr.  F.  L.  Hoffman,  an  insurance  statistician, 
estimated  that  at  least  5,600,000  persons  worked  under  conditions 
which  were  "detrimental  to  health  and  life  on  account  of  atmos- 
pheric pollution,  or  the  relatively  excessive  presence  of  atmospheric 
impurities  predisposing  to  or  accelerating  the  relative  frequency 
of  tubercular  and  respiratory  diseases." 

The   American   Red  Cross   has   estimated  that   industrial   acci- 

57 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

dents  cause  the  deaths  of  more  than  22,000  persons  annually  in  the 
United  States.  The  number  of  disabilities  resulting  from  indus- 
trial accidents  was  estimated  at  3,400,000,  a  total  of  680,000  workers 
were  incapacitated  for  at  least  four  weeks.^ 

The  extreme  specialization  of  modern  industry  presents  a  grave 
menace  to  the  workers.  In  many  industries  today  there  is  a  high 
degree  of  monotony.  Thousands  of  workers  perform  the  same 
small  movement  countless  times  a  day.  An  observer  tells  of  a 
woman  whose  only  task  is  to  take  a  half-formed  hinge  and  place 
it  in  the  bending  machine  fifty  times  a  minute,  or  30,000  times  a 
day ;  another  worker  cuts  out  tin  can  tops  by  pressing  a  foot-lever 
forty  times  a  minute;  a  garment  worker  watches  twelve  jumping 
needles  of  a  power  machine.  A  social  worker  tells  of  a  white- 
haired  man  whose  task  is  to  watch  for  dents  in  tin  cans  as  they 
pass  in  an  endless  procession.  At  long  intervals  he  uses  one  hand 
to  remove  a  can  that  is  dented.  All  day  long  he  scarcely  takes 
his  eyes  off  the  stream  of  tin  cans.  During  his  thirteen  years  at 
this  job,  millions  of  cans  have  passed  before  his  eyes. 

Repetition  and  monotony  have  disastrous  nervous  and  mental 
consequences.  A  few  years  at  such  a  task  unfits  a  person  for 
constructive  workmanship.  Machine-tending  jobs  are  usually 
blind-alley  jobs,  offering  small  opportunity  for  advancement  or 
self-improvement.  In  fact,  it  has  been  well  said  that  machine- 
tending  "dis-educates"  growing  minds. 

2.  Decreasing  Independence  of  the  Individual,  Enforced 
unemployment  is  one  phase  of  this  tendency.  In  the  days  of 
cheap  land  and  hand  industry  a  man  was  less  dependent  upon 
others  for  a  job.  The  volume  of  enforced  unemployment  was 
light.  Today  the  jobs  of  millions  of  workers  depend  upon  con- 
ditions over  which  the  individual  has  absolutely  no  control. 
Modern  industry  has  concentrated  the  means  of  production  in 
huge  factories,  with  the  consequence  that  an  increasing  number 
of  workers  do  not  own  their  tools.  Cheap  land  is  no  longer  avail- 
able. Modern  industrial  workers  are  therefore  absolutely  de- 
pendent upon  their  jobs  for  a  livelihood.  And  over  their  jobs  they 
have  little  or  no  control.  •  One  of  the  staggering  human  costs  of 
modern  industry  is  the  insecurity  of  the  workers.  Tens  of  thou- 
sands of  able-bodied  men  are  constantly  seeking  in  vain  for  em- 
ployment.    A  careful  estimate  of  the  volume  of  unemployment  in 


^  W.  L.  Chenery,  "Industry  and  Human  Welfare,"  pp.   138,  139. 

58 


DOES  MODERN  INDUSTRY  HELP  OR  HINDER? 

the  United  States  between  1902  and  1917  places  the  number  of 
unemployed  at  from  one  million  to  six  millions,  the  average  num- 
ber being  two  and  a  half  million  workers.  During  1921  and  the 
early  months  of  1922  the  number  of  unemployed  was  estimated  at 
from  three  to  five  million  workers.  The  Engineers  Committee  on 
the  Elimination  of  Waste,  appointed  by  Mr.  Herbert  Hoover,  found 
that : 

"The  clothing  worker  is  idle  about  thirty-one  per  cent  of  the 
year ;  the  average  shoe-maker  spends  only  sixty-five  per  cent  of 
his  time  at  work ;  the  building-trade  workman  is  employed  only 
about  190  days  in  the  year  or  approximately  sixty-three  per  cent 
of  his  time;  the  textile  industry  seemingly  has  regular  intervals 
of  slack  time ;  during  the  past  thirty  years  bituminous-coal  miners 
were  idle  an  average  of  ninety-three  possible  working  days  per 
year." 

Another  phase  of  the  increasing  helplessness  of  the  individual  is 
found  in  the  concentration  of  ownership  and  control  of  industry. 
There  was  a  time  when  business  men  were  not  greatly  unequal  in 
power  and  when  employers  and  workers  were  separated  by  only 
a  narrow  margin  of  power.  That  day  has  gone.  Individual  busi- 
ness men  are  finding  it  increasingly  difficult  to  carry  on  success- 
fully. The  corporation  is  rapidly  displacing  the  individual  owner. 
Chain  stores  are  driving  many  small  stores  out  of  business.  Huge 
corporations  are  making  successful  operation  more  and  more  diffi- 
cult for  small  corporations.  The  control  of  many  large  industries 
is  increasingly  falling  into  the  hands  of  banking  syndicates.  The 
Federal  Commission  on  Industrial  Relations  found  that :  "A  care- 
ful and  conservative  study  shows  that  the  corporations  controlled 
by  six  financial  groups  and  affiliated  interests  employ  2,651,684 
wage  earners  and  have  a  total  capitalization  of  $19,875,200,000. 
These  six  financial  groups  control  twenty-eight  per  cent  of  the 
total  number  of  wage  earners  engaged  in  the  industries  covered 
by  the  report  of  our  investigation.  The  Morgan-First  National 
Bank  group  alone  controls  corporations  employing  785,499  wage 
earners."^ 

In  mediaeval  and  ancient  times  men  sought  power  and  wealth, 
not  only  through  commercial  channels,  but  through  social  and 
political  avenues.  The  result  was  feudalism  and  the  divine  right 
of  kings.  The  rise  of  the  democratic  spirit  is  slowly  but  surely 
destroying  that  power.     The  development  of  modern  industry  has, 


^  Senate  Document  No.  415,  p.  80. 

59 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

however,  brought  about  a  concentration  of  wealth  and  control 
which  enables  a  few  men  to  exercise  power  and  influence  com- 
parable to  that  of  mediaeval  monarchs. 

If  the  individual  business  man  is  finding  himself  increasingly 
helpless  in  the  face  of  the  enormous  concentration  of  wealth  and 
power,  how  much  the  more  so  is  this  true  of  the  industrial  worker. 
What  chance  has  he  to  affect  the  wage  schedule  of  a  billion  dollar 
corporation  or  in  any  way  to  change  the  policies  determined  upon 
by  a  ten-billion-dollar  syndicate  of  bankers? 

The  situation  is  made  even  more  difficult  for  the  individual  by 
reason  of  the  existence  of  class  codes  of  conduct.  The  individual 
worker  who  goes  contrary  to  the  decision  of  organized  labor  is 
known  as  a  "scab"  and  loses  caste  with  many  of  his  fellow 
workers.  The  individual  business  man  who  goes  contrary  to  the 
decision  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  Bankers'  Association,  or 
noon  luncheon  club  becomes  an  object  of  suspicion  and  often 
loses  social  standing.  Not  infrequently  pressure  is  brought  to 
bear  upon  him  to  induce  him  to  remain  loyal  to  the  group  decision. 
Such  pressure  is  not  uncommon  in  connection  with  strikes  and 
the  open-shop  drive. 

It  was  formerly  true  that  an  individual  business  man  or  worker 
could  be  his  own  boss  and  do  much  as  he  pleased.  Not  so  today. 
The  individual  employer  or  worker  finds  it  increasingly  difficult 
to  say : 

"I  am  the  master  of  my  fate : 
I  am  the  captain  of  my  soul." 

This  is  true  of  the  modern  worker  or  business  man  only  as  he  com- 
bines with  his  fellows.  Only  the  few  individuals  who  control 
huge  corporations  are  now  really  masters  of  their  own  financial 
fate. 

3.  Antagonism  in  Human  Relations.  The  intensification  of 
competition  and  the  commercial  struggle  against  one's  neighbor 
must  be  counted  as  one  of  the  human  costs  of  modern  industry. 
From  its  beginning  modern  industry  has  rested  upon  the  doctrine 
of  free  competition  and  laissc::  faire — the  public  good  will  best  be 
served  by  each  person  seeking  his  own  good,  with  the  minimum  of 
state  interference.  This  belief  has  been  almost  universal  in 
America.  This  policy  has  been  dominant  throughout  the  history 
of  the  United  States.  Undoubtedly  it  has  developed  a  hardi- 
ness of  character  and   a  degree  of   self-reliance  which   has  had 

60 


DOES  MODERN  INDUSTRY  HELP  OR  HINDER? 

a  large  share  in  the  success  of  American  industry.  It  should 
never  be  forgotten,  however,  that  this  is  a  policy  of  warfare ;  each 
man  for  himself  and  the  hand  of  every  man  raised  against  his 
fellows.  The  size  of  material  rewards  has  been  determined  by  the 
degree  of  victory  in  vanquishing  one's  competitors. 

So  long  as  cheap  land  and  undeveloped  resources  were  available 
this  policy  of  each  man  seeking  his  own  good  was  less  detrimental 
to  social  welfare.  With  the  growth  of  population,  the  passing  of 
cheap  land,  the  monopolization  of  natural  resources,  and  the  con- 
centration of  control  of  industry,  this  policy  is  highly  dangerous. 
Unless  we  find  another  basis  than  the  seeking  of  his  own  good 
by  each  individual  we  cannot  avoid  an  intensified  warfare  between 
groups  of  business  men  and  between  employers  and  workers.  It 
is  difficult  to  see  how  the  doctrine  of  laisscz  faire  can  possibly 
promote  harmonious  relations  in  modern  industry. 

Public  welfare  is  further  threatened  by  reason  of  the  fact  that 
the  modern  industrial  struggle  is  a  fruitful  source  of  wars  between 
nations.  Modern  inventions  have  made  the  whole  world  a  neigh- 
borhood. Commercial  competition  between  business  men  in  various 
nations  is  increasingly  keen.  The  scramble  for  the  raw  materials 
and  markets  of  the  world  grows  more  intense.  "The  war  after 
the  war"  is  now  in  progress  and  is  certainly  leading  on  to  wars 
between  nations,  unless  a  halt  is  called  to  the  struggle  of  each  man 
after  his  own  good  and  each  nation  after  its  own  welfare. 

4.  Moral  and  Spiritual  Losses.  The  strife  which  is  inherent 
in  a  system  based  upon  self-seeking  has  played  havoc  with  human 
brotherhood.  Modern  industry  is  anything  but  a  -brotherhood. 
A  dual  code  of  ethics  has  grown  up.  Jesus'  principle  of  brother- 
hood is  still  widely  accepted  as  a  theory,  as  an  ideal  to  be  realized 
in  the  Utopian  future.  But  to  base  business  policies  upon  the 
gospel  of  brotherhood  is  usually  considered  utterly  impracticable. 
"Business  is  business,"  we  are  told,  and  cannot  be  conducted  along 
sentimental  lines. 

The  dominant  motive  of  modern  business  men  is  the  making  of 
profits.  By  this  standard  success  is  measured.  The  two  things 
most  eagerly  sought  after  in  modern  commercial  life  are  material 
possessions  and  personal  power — the  desire  for  luxuries  and  the 
craving  for  mastery.  It  is  recognized,  of  course,  that  there  are 
many  exceptions  to  the  general  rule  and  that  many  business  men 
are  not  dominated  by  the  desire  for  profits  or  selfish  power.  But 
if  modern  business   is  considered  as  a  whole,   is  it  not  true  that 

61 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

these  two  incentives  far  outweigh  all  others  combined?  If  this  is 
the  case,  is  not  modern  business  based  upon  motives  which  are  in 
fundamental  contradiction  to  the  spirit  and  teaching  of  Jesus? 
For  the  true  follower  of  Jesus  the  serving  of  others  is  far  more 
important  than  the  securing  of  material  luxuries  and  personal 
power.  The  desire  to  live  luxuriously  in  a  poor  world  and  to 
"lord  it  over"  others  are  not  Christian  virtues. 

One  of  the  moral  costs  of  modern  business  is  the  almost  univer- 
salh'  accepted  theory  that  business  men  cannot  be  expected  to 
render  their  best  service  unless  granted  unlimited  financial  rewards. 
Any  talk  of  limiting  huge  fortunes  always  brings  the  retort  that 
to  do  so  would  "kill  initiative"  and  decrease  the  energies  of  busi- 
ness men.  A  sharp  line  is  drawn  between  business  men  and 
teachers,  doctors,  soldiers,  scientists,  and  preachers.  Men  in  these 
latter  professions  are  expected  to  render  their  best  service  for 
their  fellows  without  regard  to  remuneration  received.  It  would 
never  occur  to  anyone  to  suggest  that  a  reputable  surgeon  would 
vary  his  skill  in  an  operation  in  accordance  with  the  size  of  his 
fee.  It  would  be  regarded  as  an  insult  to  say  that  a  preacher 
would  display  more  Christian  zeal  for  five  thousand  dollars  a  year 
than  he  would  for  half  that  salary.  And  yet  over  and  over  again 
we  hear  it  said  that  business  men  cannot  be  expected  to  do  their 
best  work  without  the  possibility  of  unlimited  material  rewards. 
In  other  words,  a  dual  standard  has  been  erected,  one  for  business 
men  and  another  for  Christian  preachers,  teachers,  doctors,  and 
other  servants  of  society.  Is  not  this  lack  of  faith  in  business  men 
and  the  failure  to  expect  them  to  respond  to  the  higher  motive  of 
service  for  the  common  good  just  as  readily  as  other  Christian 
men  one  of  the  serious  losses  of  the  present  day? 

One  of  the  very  serious  costs  of  modern  industry  is  found  in 
its  effects  upon  family  life.  We  have  long  been  taught  that  human 
progress  depends  upon  a  healthy  family  life.  Modern  industry 
has  done  much  to  shatter  the  family.  The  day  when  the  family 
worked  at  home  has  passed.  The  father  now  works  in  a  distant 
office,  factory,  or  mine.  He  is  away  from  home  from  nine  to 
thirteen  hours  per  day.  An  increasing  number  of  mothers  are 
being  driven  into  industry  by  the  inadequacy  of  the  father's  wage. 
A  vast  proportion  of  boys  and  girls  begin  work  at  the  age  of 
fourteen  or  fifteen  and  are  away  from  home  all  day.  In  an 
appalling  number  of  instances  the  members  of  families  do  not  see 
each  other  except  at  night  and  as  they  are  hastening  to  work  in 
the  morning.  In  a  very  large  number  of  cases  children  are  left 
■   ■  62 


DOES  MODERN  INDUSTRY  HELP  OR  HINDER? 

to  roam  the  streets  with  no  supervision.  It  is  little  short  of  a 
miracle  to  avoid  contracting  vicious  habits  under  such  circum- 
stances. 

Family  life  is  further  threatened  by  reason  of  the  kind  of  dwell- 
ings in  which  vast  numbers  of  families  now  reside.  A  considerable 
proportion  of  the  working  population  reside  in  shanties  or  slums, 
crowded  together  in  an  atmosphere  which  is  wholly  unfavorable 
to  congenial  family  life.  The  high  degree  of  drudgery  and 
monotony  incident  to  many  industrial  occupations,  coupled  with 
unattractive  dwelling  places,  makes  almost  inevitable  the  search 
for  excitement  and  amusement  outside  the  home.  It  is  not  an 
exaggeration  to  say  that  many  families  rarely  spend  an  evening 
all  together  in  recreation  within  the  home. 

Behold  what  modern  industry  is  doing  to  the  family  :  taking  the 
father  away  for  long  hours  and  returning  him  exhausted,  driving 
mothers  away  from  home  and  leaving  children  unguarded,  sending 
children  into  distant  workshops  at  the  earliest  legal  age,  furnish- 
ing dreary  and  unattractive  places  of  abode,  attempting  to  satisfy 
the  craving  for  excitement  by  outside  commercial  amusements — 
all  these  combined  present  a  grave  menace  to  the  family. 

Let  us  now  tabulate  the  facts  set  forth  in  this  chapter : 

Advantages  of  Modern  Industry      Disadvantages    of   Modern    In- 
dustry 

Greatly  increased  production  Accidents  and  occupational  dis- 

Machines  have  lifted  burdens  eases 

An  enormous  saving  of  time  Monotony  and  fatigue 

Menace  to  the  family 
Decreasing  independence 
Antagonistic  human,  relations 
Endangering  of  brotherhood 
Moral  and  spiritual  losses 

Are  we  now  in  a  position  to  strike  a  balance?  Does  modern 
industry  help  or  hinder  the  full  development  of  human  beings? 
Do  its  benefits  outweigh  its  human  costs?  Upon  what  groups 
rest  chief  responsibility  for  reducing  the  human  costs  of  modern 
industry  ? 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THOUGHT  AND  DISCUSSION 

The  following  represent  pairs  of  contrasting  statements.  Choose 
the  one  in  each  pair  you  are  willing  to  defend  and  indicate  why. 
Material  will  be  found  in  the  chapter  in  defense  of  each  statement. 

63 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

lA.  Modern  industry  has  brought  for  the  first  time  in  human 
history  a  comfortable  life  within  the  range  of  all.  Despite  all 
of  the  things  which  may  be  said  regarding  monotony,  fatigue,  and 
danger  to  health,  it  has,  upon  the  whole,  brought  greater  comfort 
to  the  worker. 

IB.  Modern  industry  menaces  the  safety  and  health  of  the 
workers.  The  monotony  and  fatigue  of  machine  production  is 
beyond  description.  Even  though  as  a  result  the  worker  can  get 
more  goods,  he  is  unfitted  for  enjoying  them.  Upon  the  whole, 
machme  production  has  not  brought  greater  comfort  to  the  worker. 

2A.  Under  modern  industry,  heavy  loads  are  lifted  from  human 
shoulders,  and  the  greatest  drudgery  is  borne  by  machines.  Even 
though  it  may  be  monotonous,  it  is  less  harmful  and  makes  labor 
more  tolerable. 

2B.  Under  machine  production,  the  worker  is  depersonalized 
and  becomes  simply  a  cog  in  the  machine.  The  interests  and 
welfare  of  the  individual  are  subordinated  to  the  production  of 
goods.  Skill  in  running  machines  is  more  easily  acquired  than  skill 
in  the  old  crafts.  Consequently  workers  can  be  more  easily 
replaced.  Under  these  conditions,  the  worker  is  more  helpless,  and 
exploitation  of  labor,  second  only  to  serfdom  and  slavery,  is  made 
possible. 

3A.  Machine  production  has  greatly  reduced  the  time  necessary 
to  produce  goods,  and  thus  makes  possible  a  shorter  working  day 
and  greater  leisure.  This  makes  a  man's  day,  taken  as  a  whole, 
more  tolerable  than  under  the  old  labor  conditions. 

3B.  Modern  industry  robs  a  man  of  the  chance  of  having  fun 
at  his  job.  It  has  taken  away  the  opportunity  for  the  expression 
of  creative  instincts  and  the  joy  of  workmanship.  The  man  who 
works  longer  and  harder,  but  has  fun  at  his  work,  is  really 
better  off. 

4.  Upon  the  whole,  does  modern  industry  help  or  hinder  the 
full  development  of  human  beings? 


54 


CHAPTER  7 
Why  Is  There  Not  Enough  to  Go  Around? 

It  is  admitted  that  modern  industry  is  injurious  to  the  health, 
mentahty,  and  morals  of  many  workers.  But  it  is  often  contended 
that  this  human  cost  is  one  of  the  prices  we  have  to  pay  for  in- 
creased production  and  a  higher  standard  of  life.  We  are  told 
that,  after  all,  it  is  better  for  society  to  have  a  large  quantity  of 
goods  to  distribute,  even  if  this  does  involve  occupational  diseases, 
monotony,  fatigue,  unwholesome  living  conditions,  and  deadened 
personalities  for  many  workers.  The  gains  are  considered  to  be 
greater  than  the  losses.  It  is  pointed  out  that  the  people  of  no 
other  great  nation  in  history  have  ever  been  as  well  off  as  are  the 
American  people  today. 

Back  of  such  statements  is  the  assumption  that  at  the  present 
time  a  sufficient  quantity  of  goods  is  being  produced  to  provide 
plenty  for  all.  This  view  is  v;idely  prevalent.  The  truth  is, 
however,  the  reverse  of  this.  The  present  supply  of  necessities 
and  comforts  of  life  is  wholly  inadequate  to  supply  the  real  needs 
of  all  the  people.  In  substantiation  of  this  statement  we  cited  an 
abundance  of  proof  in  a  former  chapter,  taken  from  an  analysis  of 
our  national  income  and  from  income-tax  returns,  wage  schedules, 
and  charity  records.  If  the  total  national  income,  after  deductions 
for  expenses  of  government  and  necessary  reserve  for  expansion 
of  industry,  should  be  divided  equally  the  amount  available  for 
each  family  would  be  approximately  $2,^00.  And  of  course  it 
is  not  divided  equally.  The  heads  of  half  the  families  in  the 
United  States  have  an  annual  income  of  less  than  $1,500.  There  is 
simply  no  escaping  the  fact  that  at  the  present  time  we  are  not 
producing  enough  goods  to  go  around. 

Surely  we  are  confronted  with  an  amazing  situation.  With 
fertile  soil,  favorable  climate,  vast  natural  resources,  enormous 
mechanical  power,  countless  inventions  and  labor  saving  devices, 
keen  business  men,  highly  trained  administrators,  skilled  engineers 
and  mechanics,  and  an  abundant  supply  of  manual  workers — with 

65 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

all  these  combined  we  are  not  producing  enough  to  go  around 
and  at  least  one-third  of  our  people  are  lacking  in  the  necessities 
and  minimum  comforts  of  life.  How  are  we  to  account  for  such 
an  extraordinary  state  of  affairs?  Why  is  present  production 
inadequate  ? 

1.  Sabotage  and  Waste.  We  are  not  trying  very  hard  to 
produce  enough  goods  to  go  around.  Only  a  small  fraction  of  the 
workers  put  their  whole  energy  into  their  tasks.  More  or  less 
loafing  on  the  job  is  characteristic  of  many  workers,  as  is  also 
much  careless  and  slipshod  work.  In  addition,  there  are  some 
workers  who,  for  one  reason  or  another,  are  guilty  of  deliberate 
waste  of  materials.  The  extreme  forms  of  sabotage,  however, 
are  not  common  in  the  United  States. 

It  ought  to  be  clearly  understood  that  not  all  sabotage  is  prac- 
ticed by  the  workers.  The  employers  also  are  guilty  of  deliberate 
restriction  of  output,  and  in  fact  are  vastly  more  successful  in  this 
regard  than  are  the  workers.  The  quantity  of  goods  produced  may 
always  be  limited  by  the  employers.  Few  plants  or  factories  pro- 
duce the  maximum  quantity  of  goods.  An  employer  sometimes 
buys  a  new  invention,  simply  to  keep  it  from  falling  into  the  hands 
of  a  competitor,  and  then  fails  to  use  it,  since  it  may  be  more 
profitable  to  avoid  the  expense  of  the  new  machinery  which  it 
would  necessitate.  Owners  have  even  been  known  to  destroy 
goods  in  order  to  keep  up  prices. 

Another  form  of  social  waste  is  found  in  the  excessive  produc- 
tion of  luxuries.  In  a  former  chapter  we  treated  in  some  detail 
the  extent  and  consequences  of  luxury  in  the  United  States.  There 
is  no  room  for  doubt  that  the  annual  expenditure  of  some  ten 
billion  dollars  of  our  national  income  for  articles  classed  as 
luxuries  is  an  important  cause  of  the  shortage  and  high  prices  of 
necessities  and  minimum  comforts.  We  cannot  expend  raw  ma- 
terials, labor,  and  capital  on  luxuries  without  decreasing  the  supply 
and  increasing  the  cost  of  necessities. 

2.  Ignorance  and  Bad  Management.  Many  workers  are 
poorly  qualified  to  do  efficient  work.  Notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  as  a  nation  we  are  among  the  best  educated  people  in  history, 
there  is  an  alarming  degree  of  illiteracy,  ignorance,  and  low  men- 
tality in  our  midst.  In  1917  and  1918  the  army  intelligence  tests 
were  given  to  1,726,966  men.  These  tests  showed  that  a  con- 
siderable number  of  these  men  were  of  low  intelligence.  As  a 
result  of  these  tests  it  has  been  estimated  that  of  our  total  popula- 

66 


H'HV  IS  THERE  NOT  ENOUGH  TO  GO  A  ROUND? 

tion,  twelve  per  cent  are  of  superior  intelligence,  sixty-six  per  cent 
average,  and  twenty-two  per  cent  inferior.  Inefficiency  in  industry 
is  further  intensified  by  reason  of  the  lack  of  adequate  training  on 
the  part  of  most  workers. 

Ignorance  and  inefficiency  are  not  confined  to  the  workers.  In 
fact,  Mr.  Herbert  Hoover's  committee  of  engineers  found  that 
"over  fifty  per  cent  of  the  responsibility  for  these  wastes  can  be 
placed  at  the  door  of  management  and  less  than  twenty-five  per 
cent  at  the  door  of  labor."  Among  the  factors  of  low  production 
listed  by  this  committee  for  which  the  managers  are  responsible 
are  the  following:  faulty  material  control,  faulty  design  control, 
faulty  production  control,  lack  of  cost  control,  lack  of  research, 
faulty  labor  control,  failure  to  provide  training  facilities,  and  faulty 
sales  policies.  There  is  room  for  an  enormous  increase  in  efficiency 
on  the  part  of  workers  and  managers  alike. 

In  this  connection,  Mr.  H.  L.  Gantt,  one  of  the  leading  pro- 
duction engineers  of  the  United  States,  said  that,  in  June,  1918,  a 
boom  period  in  industry,  "only  about  fifty  per  cent  of  our  indus- 
trial machines  are  actually  operating  during  the  time  they  are 
expected  to  operate;  and  on  the  whole  the  machines,  during  the 
time  they  are  being  operated,  are  producing  only  about  fifty  per 
cent  of  what  they  are  expected  to  produce.  This  brings  our  pro- 
duction result  down  to  about  one-fourth  of  what  it  might  be  if 
our  machines  were  run  all  the  time  at  their  highest  capacity."^ 
Satisfaction  with  the  superiority  of  present  production  over  that 
of  past  ages  should  not  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  there  is  a  very 
wide  gulf  between  actual  production  and  potential  production. 

3.     Lack   of    Impelling    Motive    to    Maximum    Production. 

Another  important  factor  making  for  inefficiency  of  workers  is 
the  failure  of  industry  to  appeal  to  any  other  motive  than  that  of 
financial  self-interest.  Here  again  we  must  admit  that  there  are 
exceptions  to  the  rule  But  it  seems  unquestionable  that  primary 
dependence  is  placed  upon  financial  rewards  to  secure  the  efficiency 
of  the  workers— higher  wages,  profit  sharing,  bonus  schemes. 
This  plan  is  obviously  failing.  One  reason  is  that  the  average 
worker  has  little  hope  of  permanently  bettering  his  financial  con- 
dition to  any  considerable  extent.  There  are  many  exceptions,  of 
course;  men  who  are  hopeful  and  who  do  break  through  into  the 
ranks  of  owners  and  employers.     But  only  an  exceedingly  small 


1  Quoted  in   L.   D.   Edie,   "Current  Social  and  Industrial  Forces,"   p.  32. 

67 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

proportion  of  the  total  number  of  workers  succeed  in  doing  this. 
The  best  that  the  average  worker  can  reasonably  hope  for  is 
barely  enough  to  enable  him  to  support  a  family  in  modest  com- 
fort. This  widespread  feeling  of  helplessness  and  hopelessness  is 
a  barrier  to  the  efficiency  of  the  workers. 

Coupled  with  this  is  the  resentment  of  most  workers  at  what 
seems  to  them  to  be  an  unjust  division  of  the  proceeds  of  industry. 
There  is  a  widespread  tendency  among  workers  to  say :  Why 
should  we  work  ourselves  to  death  in  order  to  pile  up  riches  for 
the  boss?  This  feeling  is  intensified  by  an  exaggerated  idea  on 
the  part  of  the  workers  as  to  the  wealth  of  employers  and  as  to 
the  financial  condition  of  the  companies  by  which  they  are  em- 
ployed. The  fact  that  they  do  not  have  access  to  the  books  of  the 
employer  makes  it  easy  for  them  to  believe  exaggerated  reports. 

Another  cause  of  inefficiency  is  found  in  the  fact  that  thousands 
of  workers  today  are  thwarted  in  their  desire  to  give  expression 
to  the  creative  instincts.  Modern  machine  industry  dooms  most 
workers  to  a  life  of  repetition  and  monotony.  What  opportunity 
for  the  expression  of  his  creative  instincts  is  given  to  the  worker 
who  spends  the  day  watching  for  dents  in  an  endless  stream  of 
tin  cans,  or  who  pushes  a  lever  forty  times  a  minute,  or  whose 
only  task  is  screwing  nuts  on  bolts,  or  doing  the  "dirty  work"  in 
any  of  a  score  of  industries? 

Then,  too,  no  consistent  appeal  is  made  to  the  workers  to  serve 
the  common  good  by  efficient  work.  No  sufficient  effort  is  made 
to  show  the  workers  the  relation  of  their  tasks  to  the  welfare  of 
all  the  people.  The  consequence  is  that  the  loyalty  of  the  average 
worker  is  centered  upon  himself  and  his  family,  or  at  best  extends 
no  further  than,  or  is  transferred  to,  a  class  group,  such  as  a  trade 
union  or  a  revolutionary  group.  In  the  normal  human  being  the 
instinct  of  self-giving  is  probably  as  strong  as  that  of  self-gain, 
mutual  aid  operates  as  powerfully  as  antagonism  and  rivalry. 
And  yet  modern  industry  scarcely  takes  these  into  account  in  its 
appeal  to  the  workers.  Of  course  many  workers  are  inefficient: 
what  else  could  we  expect?  No  man  ever  does  his  best  work 
merely  for  money.  The  higher  energies  of  men  cannot  be  pur- 
chased. The  war  demonstrated  that  beyond  doubt.  So  long  as 
workers  are  doomed  to  monotony  and  toil  without  seeing  the  rela- 
tion of  their  work  to  the  good  life  of  all  the  people,  and  so  long  as 
the  only  appeal  made  to  them  is  that  of  financial  self-interest,  must 
we  not  expect  a  high  degree  of  inefficiency  among  workers? 
At  the  present  time  most  business  men  also  lack  an  adequate  mo- 


IVHY  IS  THERE  NOT  ENOUGH  TO  GO  AROuND? 

tive  to  maximum  production.  Most  men  are  not  in  business  pri- 
marily for  the  sake  of  producing  needed  goods.  Their  chief  purpose 
is  to  make  profit  for  themselves.  Hence  the  common  saying :  "1  am 
not  in  business  for  my  health."  Maximum  production  is  not  the 
aim  of  modern  industry.  The  real  aim  is  to  produce  the  quantity 
of  goods  which  yields  the  highest  rate  of  profits.  The  moment 
production  ceases  to  pay  normal  profits,  the  manufacturer  takes 
refuge  behind  "the  law  of  supply  and  demand"  and  limits  pro- 
duction, even  though  there  is  crying  need  for  his  goods,  whether 
it  be  shoes,  fuel,  houses,  or  food.  Thus  we  have  a  condition  where 
the  test  of  production  is  not  whether  goods  are  needed,  but 
whether  it  is  profitable  for  the  individual  to  produce  them. 

We  are  not  attempting  to  say  that  at  the  present  time  a  manu- 
facturer can  do  anything  else  other  than  restrict  production  when 
he  can  no  longer  produce  at  a  profit.  We  are  merely  pointing  out 
the  fact  that  our  modern  productive  processes  are  not  built  around 
the  needs  of  the  community  but  around  the  profits  of  the  managers 
or  owners.  The  significance  of  this  fact  should  not  be  overlooked. 
With  the  available  natural  resources,  power-machines,  and  labor, 
it  would  not  be  difficult  to  produce  enough  goods  to  satisfy  all  of 
the  real  needs  of  the  whole  population  if  the  energies  of  the 
nation  were  directed  to  that  end.  The  trouble  is  that  in  our 
present  system  the  motive  of  financial  profit  subordinates  the 
motive  of  service  and  prevents  the  attainment  of  higher  standards 
of  production. 

4.  Lack  of  Security.  Certainly  one  of  the  reasons  why  the 
workers  do  not  exert  themselves  sufficiently  is  the  fear  of  unem- 
ployment. There  is  a  very  widespread  belief  among  the  workers 
that  by  extra  exertion  a  person  is  likely  "to  work  himself  out  of 
a  job."  It  is  commonly  believed  that  the  slower  the  work  the 
longer  the  job  will  last.  "If  it  is  a  question  of  100  per  cent  em- 
ployment at  seventy  per  cent  efficiency  or  of  seventy  per  cent  em- 
ployment at  100  per  cent  efficiency,  the  laborer  will  quite  certainly 
choose  the  former."  Even  at  best  the  uncertainty  of  securing 
another  job  without  delay  tends  to  cause  the  worker  to  cling  to 
his  present  job  as  long  as  possible.  This  fear  of  unemployment 
is  partly  responsible  for  the  rules  of  many  trade  unions  which 
tend  to  restrict  production. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  worker  has  good  cause  to  fear  unem- 
ployment. The  average  person  with  a  steady  income  simply  cannot 
comprehend  the  extent  of  the  calamity  of  unemployment.    A  few 

69 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

weeks  or  months  of  enforced  unemployment  may  absolutely  dis- 
rupt the  mode  of  living  of  a  family  and  leave  permanent  effects 
upon  them.  The  extent  of  unemployment  is  appalling-.  Rarely 
ever  does  the  number  of  unemployed  in  the  United  States  fall 
below  one  million,  and  in  times  of  severe  depression  it  runs  to 
five  and  six  millions.  In  many  industries  the  workers  are  unem- 
ployed from  one-fifth  to  one-third  of  the  year.  It  should  be 
remembered  that  even  during  periods  of  regular  emplovment 
the  wages  of  large  masses  of  workers  are  insufficient  to  enable 
them  to  maintain  a  decent  and  comfortable  standard  of  life  for 
themselves  and  their  families.  This  fact  increases  the  horror  of 
unemployment.  It  is  foolish  to  expect  the  workers  to  put  forth 
their  best  efforts  so  long  as  they  are  confronted  with  this  dread 
of  unemployment.  Under  such  circumstances  they  will  work  no 
harder  than  is  necessary  in  order  to  keep  from  being  discharged. 
The  lack  of  security  is  also  one  of  the  chief  reasons  why  em- 
ployers restrict  production.  The  degree  of  this  insecurity  is  re- 
vealed in  the  fact  that,  according  to  Dun,  there  have  been  more 
than  260,000  commercial  failures  in  the  United  States  during  the 
past  twenty  years.  They  are  in  constant  fear  of  producing  more 
goods  than  can  be  disposed  of  at  a  profit.  In  this  connection 
Professor  David  Friday  says:  "The  greatest  obstacle  to  flood- 
tide  production  in  this  country  is  the  conviction  firmly  rooted 
in  the  minds  of  both  laborer  and  employer  that  America  will  not 

consume  all  that  she  can  produce The  laborer  is  making 

work  by  shirking ;  the  business  man  is  timid  in  going  forward  with 
production."  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  workers  and  employers 
alike  are  afraid  to  produce  the  maximum  quantity  of  needed  goods. 
The  insecurity  of  modern  business  is  further  increased  by  the 
general  attitude  of  the  consuming  public.  Consumers  insist  on 
purchasing  goods  at  the  very  lowest  possible  price,  without  regard 
to  whether  or  not  the  workers  and  employers  are  assured  an  ade- 
quate income  for  their  services.  Thus  we  have  a  situation  where 
employers  and  workers  are  arrayed  against  each  other  and  where 
the  consumers  are  arrayed  against  both  employers  and  workers. 
By  our  emphasis  upon  self-interest  we  have  created  a  vicious  circle 
of  antagonisms ;  we  are  defeating  our  own  purposes  and  are  stand- 
ing in  the  way  of  our  own  progress. 

The  root  causes  of  inadequate  production  are  found  in  the  human 
factors  of  modern  industry.  Far  more  progress  has  been  made 
in  the  realm  of  mechanical  invention  than  in  the  realm  of  human 
relations.     We  have  depended  upon  "enlightened"  self-interest  and 

70 


WHY  IS  THERE  NOT  ENOUGH  TO  GO  AR6UND? 

"free"  competition  to  adjust  human  relations,  with  the  result  that 
we  have  created  a  situation  in  which  workers  and  employers  are 
compelled  to  restrict  production  and  to  do  far  less  than  their  best 
in  supplying  the  real  needs  of  all  the  people,  and  which  causes 
consumers  to  seek  the  lowest  prices  without  regard  to  costs  of 
production  and  the  needs  of  workers  and  employers. 

The  only  possible  way  to  get  adequate  production  of  needed 
goods  is  on  a  basis  of  cooperation  between  employers,  workers,  and 
consumers.  It  is  futile  to  expect  cordial  cooperation  between  these 
"groups  so  long  as  industry  is  based  frankly  on  private  gain — of 
employer,  worker,  or  consumer.  We  shall  not  solve  the  human 
problems  of  modern  industry  until  industry  is  regarded  as  a  public 
service  and  goods  are  produced  because  they  are  needed,  not  merely 
because  they  can  be  sold  at  a  profit.  Production  for  use  is  the 
way  out  of  our  industrial  tangle  and  our  cousequent  inadequate 
supply  of  goods. 

There  is,  however,  a  very  serious  question  in  the  minds  of  many 
people  as  to  whether  the  quantity  of  goods  produced  would  be 
greater  under  a  system  of  production  for  use.  It  is  maintained 
that  the  present  system  which  capitalizes  self-interest  is  better 
designed  to  secure  maximum  production  than  any  other  system. 
Pertinent  questions  are  being  asked :  What  basis  is  there  for  be- 
lieving that  production  for  use  would  increase  the  quantity  of 
needed  goods?  Is  not  this  a  theory  that  is  without  basis  in  actual 
experience?  Will  it  not  be  necessary  to  "change  human  nature" 
before  industry  can  be  placed  on  a  basis  of  production  for  use? 
Even  if  we  were  assured  of  more  goods,  how  shall  we  bring  about 
the  change  from  production  for  private  profit  to  production  for 
use? 

These  are  fair  questions  and  they  should  not  be  dodged.  We 
propose,  therefore,  to  devote  our  next  chapter  to  a  consideration 
of  the  issues  involved  in  production  for  use. 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THOUGHT  AND  DISCUSSION 

1.     What  examples  among  the  workers  have  come  under  your 
notice  of : 

a.  Waste. 

b.  Loafing  on  the  job. 

c.  Inefficiency. 

71 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

2.  What  is  the  reason  for  these?  In  what  order  would  you 
rank  the  following  as  possible  reasons : 

a.  Cussedness. 

b.  Laziness. 

c.  Low  mentality  and  ability. 

d.  Desire  to  get  even. 

e.  Fear  of  working  oneself  out  of  a  job. 

f.  Lack  of  interest  in  the  job. 

g.  No  stake  in  the  job. 

3.  What  examples  among  the  employers  have  come  under  your 
notice  of : 

a.  Waste. 

b.  Destruction  of  excess  products. 

c.  Bad  management. 

d.  Destruction  of  output. 

4.  What  are  the  reasons  for  these?  Rank  the  following  in 
the  order  of  their  importance  : 

a.  Fear  of  overproduction  and  financial  loss. 

b.  Desire  to  produce  only  when  profitable. 

c.  Inefficiency  in  management. 

5.  It  is  claimed  that  the  public  is  really  to  blame  for  there  not 
being  enough  produced,  because  the  more  labor  and  capital  produce 
the  less  the  public  is  willing  to  pay  and  so  loafing  and  sabotage 
are  profitable. 

(a)  What  do  you  think?    Why? 

(b)  If  labor  and  capital  produced  to  a  maximum,  would  the 
consumers  be  willing  to  guarantee  the  producers  against  actual  loss 
because  of  this  increased  production? 

6.  If  labor  was  protected  in  maximum  production  and  capital 
was  insured  against  loss  would  it  make  for  maximum  production? 
Why  or  why  not? 

7.  Because  of  present  waste  and  inefficiency  thousands  of 
families  are  robbed  of  the  essentials  of  life.  Under  present  con- 
ditions what  would  happen  if  waste  and  inefficiency  were 
eliminated? 

(a)  Would  this  make  possible  the  essentials  of  life  to  all? 

(b)  Or  would  it  still  further  increase  the  income  of  a  favored 
few? 

8.  Would  a  guarantee  that  increased  production  would  raise 
the  level  of  life  for  all  the  people  prove  a  sufficient  incentive  to 
make  capital  and  labor  secure  maximum  production?  Why  or 
why  not? 

72 


IVHV  IS  THERE  NOT  ENOUGH  TO  GO  AROUND f 

9.  In  a  country  completely  Christian  would  there,  or  would 
there  not,  be  enough  to  go  around?  Would  the  full  application  of 
Christian  principles  to  social  and  industrial  life  increase  production 
so  that  each  family  might  have  enough  for  reasonable  comfort  and 
complete  living?    What  is  the  reason  for  your  answer? 


73 


CHAPTER  8 

How  Can  Industry  be  Made  to  Produce  More 
Goods  and  Better  People  ? 

In  the  previous  chapter  we  discussed  some  of  the  reasons  why 
present  production  is  inadequate  and  why  the  human  factor  in 
industry  is  neglected  to  so  great  an  extent.  We  pointed  out  that 
one  of  the  chief  reasons  is  that  production  is  now  based  upon  profit 
rather  than  upon  need.  Goods  which  can  be  sold  at  a  profit  are 
produced,  regardless  of  whether  or  not  there  is  any  real  need  for 
them.  Goods  which  cannot  be  sold  at  a  profit  are  not  produced, 
even  though  many  people  may  be  suffering  for  lack  of  such  goods. 
We  expressed  the  opinion  that  industry  must  be  placed  on  a  basis 
of  production  for  use  before  we  can  secure  an  adequate  supply  of 
needed  goods. 

There  was  a  short  period  during  the  recent  war  when  our 
national  productive  processes  were,  to  a  considerable  extent, 
placed  on  a  basis  of  production  for  use.  At  that  time  we  were, 
of  course,  confronted  with  a  highly  abnormal  situation.  A 
national  emergency  existed  and  our  whole  energy  and  machinery 
were  directed  to  meeting  that  need.  The  nature  and  quantity  of 
goods  produced  depended  upon  the  relative  needs.  Priority  was 
an  order  of  the  day.  People  were  expected  and  required  to  forego 
many  kinds  of  luxuries.  During  those  days  it  was  clearly  recog- 
nized that  raw  materials  and  labor  which  are  devoted  to  the 
production  of  useless  articles  of  luxury  constitute  social  waste 
and  to  a  considerable  degree  luxury  production  was  forbidden  by 
law  or  placed  under  the  ban  of  public  disapproval. 

The  result  of  this  change  in  the  purpose  of  production  was  that 
during  the  war  emergency  there  was  an  enormous  increase  in 
output  of  needed  goods.  "At  that  time,"  says  Professor  David 
Friday,  "we  accomplished  the  amazing  feat  of  producing  enough 
so  that  we  were  able  to  devote  fifteen  billion  dollars'  worth  of 
product  to  the  support  of  our  allies  and  to  the  prosecution  of  war 
on  our  own  account,  and  at  the  same  time  to  maintain  the  great 

74 


MORE  GOODS  AND  BETTER  PEOPLE^ 

mass  of  our  people  in  a  state  of  comfort  fully  equal  to  that  which 
they  had  enjoyed  in  times  of  peace."  During  the  period  of  the 
war,  enforced  unemployment  was  reduced  to  the  minimum.  It 
was  easy  for  a  man  to  find  a  job. 

The  war  experience  was  not  a  wholly  adequate  test  of  produc- 
tion for  use.  It  was  an  emergency  experience,  and  measures  that 
are  effective  in  emergencies  may  not  operate  successfully  in 
normal  times.  The  national  danger  brought  about  a  concentration 
of  governmental  powers  which  certainly  would  not  be  tolerated  in 
times  of  safety.  The  tide  of  patriotism  which  swept  over  the 
nation  brought  about  an  unusual  degree  of  unselfish  public  service. 
Other  incentives  than  financial  self-interest  were  operating.  On 
the  other  hand,  there  were  enormous  difficulties  to  be  overcome. 
Our  whole  industrial  life  was  disrupted  by  the  sudden  withdrawal 
of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  skilled  men  for  combatant  service. 
Factories  had  to  be  transformed  and  new  machinery  installed. 
New  workers  had  to  be  trained,  including  tens  of  thousands  of 
women  who  were  wholly  inexperienced.  All  of  this  had  to  be 
accomplished  with  great  speed.  Cost  was  disregarded,  maximum 
production  was  the  objective.  Consequently  there  was  enormous 
waste  and  costs  of  production  were  excessively  high.  But  after 
all  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  the  war  emergency  are  con- 
sidered, the  evidence  seems  to  indicate  that  during  that  period  our 
national  production  reached  an  unparalleled  height  and  one  which 
has  not  been  maintained  since  the  armistice. 

There  are  several  features  of  our  experience  during  those  days 
which  are  of  value  in  our  present  consideration  of  production  for 
use.  During  that  period  we  had  a  nation-v.'ide  demonstration  of 
the  effectiveness  of  non-financial  incentives.  The  desire  to  serve 
was  dominant  throughout  the  nation.  Industry  was  placed  on  a 
basis  of  service.  This  is  true  in  spite  of  the  scandalous  profiteer- 
ing in  many  quarters.  On  the  whole,  there  was  a  high  degree  of 
unselfish  service  rendered,  not  only  by  men  in  uniform  overseas 
and  in  this  country,  but  also  by  a  multitude  of  men  and  women 
in  all  walks  of  life.  For  a  time  self-interest  in  industry  was 
subordinated  to  service  for  the  common  good. 

There  was  also  a  better  spirit  manifested  during  that  period. 
Men  in  different  stations  in  life  seemed  to  understand  each  other 
better.  Much  was  said  about  the  brotherhood  of  the  trenches  and 
the  workshop  and  the  new  era  in  human  relations  which  would 
follow  the  war.  There  was  less  bitterness  and  antagonism  between 
workers  and  employers.     This  is  not  to  say  there  were  no  strikes 

75 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

and  lockouts.  There  were  altogether  too  many  industrial  disputes. 
But  on  the  whole,  more  cordial  human  relations  prevailed  than 
now  exist.  A  great  national  end  brought  about  a  high  degree  of 
unity  and  cooperative  effort. 

Another  important  factor  was  the  unity  of  purchasing  power. 
The  government  was  the  buyer.  This  gave  a  concentration  of 
power,  and  was  therefore  an  instrument  of  control.  But  in  normal 
times  there  are  many  tens  of  thousands  of  separate  concerns  in 
the  market  for  goods. 

All  of  this  has  an  important  bearing  upon  the  first  question  with 
which  we  are  concerned  in  this  chapter,  viz..  How  can  industry 
be  made  to  produce  more  goods  ?  The  answer  can  only  be :  By 
cooperation — between  employers,  workers,  and  consumers.  We 
are  rapidly  becoming  convinced  that  bitterness  and  antagonism 
between  these  groups  cannot  be  overcome  by  a  continued  emphasis 
upon  self-interest,  wliere  each  employer  seeks  the  highest  profits, 
each  worker  the  highest  wages,  and  each  consumer  the  lowest 
prices.  Harmony  and  efficiency  in  production  cannot  be  secured 
on  any  other  basis  than  production  for  use,  where  goods  are 
produced  because  they  are  needed  and  where  they  are  sold  at  the 
lowest  price  which  allows  an  adequate  income  to  employers  and 
workers.  This  is  the  only  basis  upon  which  continuous  coopera- 
tion in  industry  is  possible.  And  without  cooperation  adequate 
production  of  necessities  cannot  be  secured. 

Production  for  use  also  tends  to  give  the  workers  a  stake  in  the 
industry  and  to  stimulate  them  to  greater  efficiency.  If  they  are 
convinced  that  increased  production  will  lower  costs  and  actually 
benefit  the  mass  of  people,  they  are  much  more  likely  to  work  hard 
than  if  they  believe  that  the  chief  purpose  of  increased  production 
is  to  make  larger  profits  for  the  employers. 

Production  for  use  and  cooperation  in  industry  are  not  magic 
phrases  which  instantly  solve  all  industrial  problems.  They 
simply  furnish  the  motive  and  the  method  upon  which  we  may 
safely  build  our  productive  processes.  We  should  now  consider 
certain  channels  through  which  this  motive  and  this  method  may 
be  given  expression  in  order  to  secure  more  goods  and  better 
people. 

1.  Research  and  Education.  We  have  not  yet  reached  per- 
fection in  the  mechanical  aspects  of  production.  Enormous  prog- 
ress has  been  made  in  this  field  during  the  past  century,  but  it  is 
probably  safe  to  say  that  an  equal  advance  in  mechanical  efficiency 

76 


MORE  GOODS  AND  BETTER  PEOPLE^ 

will  be  made  in  the  century  upon  which  we  are  now  entering. 
One  of  the  encouraging  signs  of  the  day  is  the  increasing  recog- 
nition of  the  value  of  research.  Many  of  the  larger  corporations 
now  maintain  research  departments  where  trained  scientists  and 
engineers  devote  all  of  their  time  to  research  experiments.  An 
immense  amount  of  valuable  research  work  is  being  done  by 
various  governmental  agencies.  All  such  agencies  should  be 
strengthened  and  extended. 

Equally  important  with  the  discovery  of  more  efficient  methods 
of  production  is  the  getting  of  these  new  devices  into  general  use. 
One  of  the  significant  findings  of  the  Engineers'  Committee  on 
the  Elimination  of  Waste  was  that  many  concerns  are  using  in- 
efficient machines  and  methods.  It  is  sometimes  more  profitable 
to  the  manufacturer  to  use  inferior  machines  than  it  would  be  to 
go  to  the  expense  of  installing  more  efficient  machines.  If  pro- 
duction for  use  were  the  objective  there  would  be  a  greater  stimulus 
to  use  the  most  efficient  machinery. 

There  is  also  room  for  great  improvement  in  the  productive 
capacity  of  the  workers.  A  large  proportion  of  workers  today 
are  poorly  qualified  for  their  tasks.  Especially  among  our  immi- 
grant population  there  is  a  disturbing  proportion  of  illiteracy, 
among  adults.  In  all  industrial  centers  a  considerable  proportion 
of  children  leave  school  and  enter  industry  at  the  earliest  legal 
age.  Most  of  these  children  never  receive  adequate  training  and 
consequently  go  through  life  poorly  equipped  for  efficient  work. 
Through  an  extension  of  the  school  age,  educational  classes  for 
adults,  technical  education,  and  vocational  guidance,  it  is  possible 
greatly  to  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  workers. 

2.  Health  Measures.  There  is  great  waste  in  production  due 
to  poor  health  and  physical  injuries.  The  conditions  under  which 
many  workers  are  employed  are  highly  detrimental  to  physical 
health  and  vigor.  Within  the  past  decade  great  improvements 
have  been  made  in  removing  the  menaces  to  the  health  and  safety 
of  the  workers.  The  installation  of  safety  devices  is  decreasing 
the  number  of  industrial  accidents.  Improvements  are  being  made 
in  ventilation,  sanitation,  and  lighting  of  industrial  establishments. 
Fatigue  is  now  being  studied  scientifically  and  we  may  expect 
great  strides  in  decreasing  its  harmful  effects.  Industrial  hygiene 
is  a  new  science  but  sufficient  progress  has  been  made  to  justify 
the  hope  for  still  greater  advance  in  improving  the  health  and 
increasing  the  safety  of  the  workers,  thus  furnishing  the  physical 
basis  of  efficiency. 

77 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

3.  Regularization  of  Employment.  Enforced  unemployment 
has  two  disastrous  effects  upon  production.  First,  machines  and 
physical  equipment  are  used  to  less  than  full  capacity,  with  con- 
sequent lowered  production.  Second,  the  fear  of  unemployment 
causes  the  worker  to  restrict  production,  in  the  hope  of  prolonging 
his  job.  The  fear  of  unemployment  is  one  of  the  chief  reasons 
for  the  inefficiency  of  the  worker.  Periods  of  enforced  idleness 
are  often  responsible  for  a  breakdown  in  health  or  morale  of  the 
worker,  from  which  it  may  take  months  to  recover,  with  a  con- 
sequent loss  in  productive  capacity. 

Concerning  the  seriousness  of  this  problem,  Secretary  Hoover 
recently  said :  "There  is,  to  my  mind,  no  economic  failure  so 
terrible  in  its  import  as  that  of  a  country  possessing  a  surplus  of 
every  necessity  of  life  with  numbers,  willing  and  anxious  to  work, 
deprived  of  those  necessities.  It  simply  cannot  be  if  our  moral 
and  economic  system  is  to  survive." 

Wliile  unemployment  is  undoubtedly  one  of  our  most  serious 
industrial  problems,  adequate  efforts  have  not  been  made  to  deal 
with  it.  In  this  connection  Mr.  Seebohm  Rowntree  says :  "The 
existence  of  unemployment  has  been  regarded  by  the  employers 
with  far  too  much  indifference,  and  by  the  workers  with  far  too 
much  of  the  spirit  of  fatalism,  and  there  has  been  a  general  reluc- 
tance to  come  to  close  grips  with  the  evil  with  a  determination  to 
remedy  it.  Fortunately,  the  human  aspects  of  industry  are  now 
receiving  a  constantly  increasing  amount  of  attention,  and  we  may 
hope  to  make  up  for  our  past  lethargy  by  rapid  progress  in  the 
immediate  future." 

One  of  the  most  conspicuous  illustrations  of  stabilizing  industry 
in  the  United  States  is  that  of  the  Dennison  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany of  Framingham,  Mass.  This  is  a  paper  goods  manufacturing 
company,  an  industry  which  is  usually  regarded  as  highly  seasonal 
and  in  which  periods  of  unemployment  are  common.  With  regard 
to  methods  of  stabilizing  this  industry,  Mr.  Henry  S.  Dennison, 
president  of  the  company,  says :  "With  respect  to  unemployment 
and  some  other  plagues,  prevention  is  more  important  than  cure. 
We  can  afford  to  spare  no  pains  in  attempting  to  put  in  motion 
such  measures  as  will  tend  to  greater  regularity.  While  perfect 
regularity,  like  perfect  health,  in  an  unattainable  goal,  regulariza- 
tion— seasonal  or  cyclical — is  a  perfectly  feasible  social  project. 
I  doubt  if  the  task  of  bringing  within  reasonable  control  the 
recurring  palsy  of  unemployment  will  require  one-half  the  effort 
which  has  been  expended  to  restrain  smallpox,  or  which  is  being 

78 


MORE  GOODS  AND  BETTER  PEOPL^ 

expended  in  control  of  yellow  fever,  bubonic  plague,  or  tubercu- 
losis. The  steps  which  must  be  taken  have  been  listed  several 
times  already.  For  seasonal  control  they  are:  planning  ahead, 
inducing  early  ordering,  adding  supplementary  merchandise,  train- 
ing operatives  to  two  jobs,  inventing  devices  to  protect  against 
weather;  and  for  cyclical:  furnishing  statistical  information, 
planning  ahead,  adding  credit  facilities,  establishing  labor  ex- 
changes, cultivating  thriftiness." 

Another  important  experiment  in  safeguarding  employment  is 
found  in  the  ladies'  garment  industry  in  Cleveland.  Concerning 
this  plan  Judge  Wm.  J.  Mack,  impartial  chairman  chosen  jointly 
by  the  manufacturers  and  the  union,  says:  "The  plan  in  operation 
in  the  ladies'  garment  industry  in' Cleveland  hits  at  the  very  crux 
of  the  problem,  for  it  aims  directly  at  the  immediate  reduction  and 
the    ultimate    elimination    of    widespread    unemployment    in    this 

industry Under  the  Cleveland   plan,  each  manufacturer 

guarantees  to  his  regular  workers  who  do  not  leave  voluntarily 
and  are  not  justifiably  discharged,  twenty  weeks  of  work  during 
each  half  year.  The  workers  must  bear  the  burden  of  the  other 
six  weeks.  If  the  employer  fulfils  his  guaranty,  by  giving  them 
such  work,  he  has  met  his  obligation ;  but  if  he  does  not  provide 
twenty  weeks  of  work  out  of  the  twenty-six  weeks,  then  for  the 
unemployed  part  of  the  twenty  weeks,  his  employes  become  en- 
titled to  two-thirds  of  their  respective  minimum  wages.  The 
agreement  for   1922  provides  a  forty-one  week  guarantee   for  the 

whole  year  instead  of  twenty  weeks  each  half  year At 

the  time  this  plan  was  put  into  effect,  the  whole  country  was  in  an 
industrial  depression,  and  no  one  knew  how  long  it  would  last  or 
how  serious  it  would  be.  To  meet  the  contention  of  the  manu- 
facturers that  under  the  depressed  conditions  this  two-thirds 
might  amount  to  more  than  they  could  stand,  this  limitation  was 
fixed :  That  no  manufacturer  should  be  liable  to  his  workers  for 
more  than  seven  and  one-half  per   cent  of  his  total  direct  labor 

pay-roll  for  the  six-month  period And  the  fact  that  even 

under  abnormal  conditions  of  the  last  six  months  a  great  many 
manufacturers  have  received  back  a  substantial  part,  and  in  some 
instances  all,  of  their  unemployment  funds,  shows  that  the  in- 
centive of  this  plan  has  been  a  real  stimulus,  and  that  as  a  con- 
sequence, unemployment  in  our  industry  in  Cleveland  has  been 
reduced." 

One  of  the  measures  most  often  advanced  as  a  means  of  helping 
to  stabilize  industry  is  to  plan  public  construction  in  such  a  way 

79 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

as  to  have  it  come  at  periods  of  low  employment.  The  volume 
of  construction  by  municipalities,  state,  and  federal  governments- 
public  buildings,  roads,  streets,  bridges,  etc. — is  sufficiently  large 
to  justify  the  effort  to  have  it  done  at  the  times  when  employment 
is  most  needed.  Closely  akin  to  this  proposal  is  the  suggestion 
of  the  extension  of  public  credit  for  public  purposes,  such  as  land 
reclamation,  water-power  development,  inland  waterways,  public 
highways,  forestry,  housing,  and  railroads  at  times  of  serious 
unemployment. 

Unemployment  insurance  is  often  advocated  as  the  most  effective 
measure  against  unavoidable  unemployment.  In  many  foreign 
countries  compulsory  unemployment  insurance  laws  have  been 
enacted.  In  a  succeding  chapter,  when  we  are  discussing  social 
insurance  in  general,  we  shall  attempt  an  evaluation  of  the  merits 
of  compulsory  unemployment  insurance. 

Many  experiments .  are  being  made  by  employers  in  various 
countries  with  different  types  of  voluntary  insurance  against  un- 
employment. One  of  the  most  interesting  and  successful  of  these 
schemes  is  that  of  Rowntree  &  Company,  cocoa  manufacturers,  of 
York,  England,  of  which  Mr.  Seebohm  Rowntree  is  the  director. 
This  company  sets  aside  one  per  cent  of  its  wage-bill  as  an  un- 
employment fund.  Most  of  its  employes  are  members  of  trade 
unions  and  hence  when  unemployed  are  eligible  to  receive  six 
shillings  per  week  from  the  union,  in  addition  to  fifteen  shillings 
per  week  under  the  State  scheme  of  insurance,  a  total  of  twenty- 
one  shillings,  or  about  $5  per  week.  The  premium  of  one  per  cent 
of  the  wage-bill  provides  a  fund  which  enables  Rowntree  &  Com- 
pany to  increase  this  sum  during  unemployment  to  half  of  their 
regular  earnings  for  single  workers,  plus  ten  per  cent  for  a 
dependent  wife  and  five  per  cent  for  each  dependent  child  under 
sixteen  years  of  age,  with  a  maximum  of  seventy-five  per  cent  of 
the  average  wage,  or  £S  per  week  (about  $25),  whichever  is  less. 

Various  experiments  are  being  made  by  employers  in  the  United 
States  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  an  increasing  number 
of  enlightened  employers  will  accept  responsibility  for  stabilizing 
employment  as  much  as  possible  and  will  provide  insurance  against 
unavoidable  unemployment.  Professor  John  R.  Commons  says, 
"Unemployment  insurance  is  the  only  method  which  can  bring 
home  to  the  bankers,  the  financiers,  the  absentee  investors,  who 
control  modern  industry,  the  responsibility  of  capitalism  for  that 
same  security  of  the  job  which  they  already  obtain  in  the  security 
of  their  investments."     Each  step  in  the  direction  of  stabilizing 

80 


MORE  GOODS  AND  BETTER  PEOPLE 

industry  tends  to  raise  the  morale  of  the  workers  and  to  increase 
production. 

4.  More  Cordial  Human  Relations  in  Industry.  Bitterness 
and  enmity  between  employers  and  workers  arc  a  serious  brake 
upon  production.  Enlightened  employers  are  now  awakening  to  the 
seriousness  of  the  situation  and  are  eager  to  establish  more  friendly 
relations  with  their  employes.  It  would  seem  that  in  the  last 
analysis  cordial  human  relations  in  industry  depend  upon  two 
factors:  (1)  an  equitable  distribution  of  the  proceeds  of  industry; 
and  (2)  a  system  of  control  which  does  not  create  a  "master  and 
servant"  relationship,  but  one  in  which  each  worker  has  a  share 
in  the  democratic  control  of  industry. 

The  importance  of  an  equitable  distribution  can  hardly  be 
exaggerated.  All  plans  for  bringing  about  cordial  human  rela- 
tions in  industry  are  doomed  to  failure  so  long  as  the  workers 
receive  a  wage  which  is  insufficient  to  enable  them  to  support  their 
families  in  modest  comfort  while  the  employers  and  stockholders 
grow  rich  and  live  in  luxury.  If  an  industry  cannot  pay  a  living 
wage  to  all  of  its  workers,  then  certainly  no  person  should  grow 
rich  out  of  that  industry.  Cordial  human  relations  can  only  be 
based  upon  justice,  and  justice  demands  an  equitable  distribution 
of  the  proceeds  of  industry. 

The  question  of  the  control  of  industry  is  so  important  that  we 
are  devoting  our  next  chapter  to  it.  It  is  futile  to  expect  adequate 
production  of  needed  goods  until  a  satisfactory  adjustment  is  made 
with  regard  to  the  control  of  industry. 

How  can  industry  be  made  to  produce  more  goods  and  better 
people?  The  present  writers  are  strongly  convinced  that  the 
placing  of  industry  on  a  basis  of  production  for  use  is  a  necessary 
step  in  this  direction.  Employers,  workers,  and  consumers  must 
cooperate  in  producing  and  distributing  goods  which  are  needed. 
To  this  end,  research,  education,  and  health  measures  are  required. 
Industry  must  be  stabilized  and  provision  made  for  the  income 
of  workers  during  periods  of  enforced  unemployment.  An  equi- 
table distribution  of  the  proceeds  of  industry  must  be  made.  And 
a  system  of  control  must  be  established  which  gives  to  each 
worker  a  share  in  the  democratic  control  of  the  industry  in  which 
he  is  engaged.  Can  we  not  agree  that  these  are  necessary  steps 
in  order  to  make  industry  produce  more  goods  and  better  people? 


81 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THOUGHT  AND  DISCUSSION 

The  following  statements  represent  viewpoints  on  which  people 
dififer.  Mark  True  in  front  of  those  you  would  be  willing  to 
defend  as  true ;  and  False  in  front  of  those  you  would  indicate  as 
false.  Then  think  of  your  reasons  for  believing  each  as  true  or 
false. 

Read  through  the  chapter  with  the  statements  in  mind  that 
interest  you  most  and  see  whether  in  the  light  of  the  data  in  the 
chapter  representing  both  sides  of  the  question,  you  would  change 
your  first  opinion. 

1.  The  workers  would  work  harder  if  their  greater  production 
lowered  the  cost  of  goods  so  a  greater  number  of  families  could 
have  the  conveniences  of  life. 

2.  Production  for  use  will  secure  more  goods  than  production 
for  profit. 

3.  The  chief  reason  a  worker  fails  to  work  at  capacity  is 
because  no  matter  how  hard  he  works  he  still  has  to  struggle  for 
subsistence  while  the  boss  grows  richer  and  richer. 

4.  The  more  efficient  the  production  in  industry,  the  less  can 
human  welfare.be  considered. 

5.  Increased  production  automatically  brings  a  higher  standard 
of  living. 

6.  Unemployment  is  as  costly  to  the  employer  as  to  the  worker. 

7.  Any  attempt  to  regularize  industry  would  destroy  free  com- 
petition and  the  incentive  to  gain  and  therefore  would  be  likely  to 
decrease  production. 

8.  The  public  should  demand  that  those  who  control  industry 
furnish  regular  employment  for  the  workers  or  assume  their 
minimum  subsistence  support. 

9.  The  comfort  of  the  worker  cannot  be  put  first  because 
without  the  pressure  of  need  the  worker  would  refuse  to  work. 

10.  Protection  of  the  health  of  the  worker  would  pay  dividends 
to  the  employer. 

11.  In  the  interests  of  a  better  economic  order  we  should 
demand  that  industry  find  the  way  to  produce  more  goods  without 
sacrificing  the  welfare  of  the  worker. 

Suggestions  to  group  leader: 

There  are  more  statements  than  can  be  covered  in  one  group 
discussion.     The   leader    should    select   the   ones   he   thinks    most 

82 


MORE  GOODS  AND  BETTER  PEOPLE 

pertinent  or   let   the  group  members  decide   which   they   wish  to 
consider.     Then  throw  each  statement  open  for  discussion. 

Be  sure  the  data  from  the  chapter  deaHng  on  each  statement  are 
introduced  into  the  discussion.  It  might  be  well  to  select  two 
persons  in  advance  for  each  statement  which  is  to  be  discussed, 
one  to  represent  it  as  true,  and  the  other  to  represent  it  as  false, 
and  open  the  discussion  by  the  consideration  of  these  two  state- 
ments. 


83 


CHAPTER  9 

What  Changes  in  Control  Would  Most 
Benefit  Industry? 

The  goal  of  industry  is  the  production  of  more  goods  and  better 
people.  The  question  of  control  is  at  the  very  heart  of  industrial 
problems.  Upon  its  solution  depends  the  efficiency  and  stability 
of  industry,  the  status  of  the  workers,  and  an  equitable  distribu- 
tion of  the  proceeds  of  industry. 

The  first  step  in  determining  what  sort  of  control  would  most 
benefit  industry  is  the  selection  of  principles  as  the  basis  of  judg- 
ment. It  would  seem  that  the  value  of  any  system  of  control 
depends  upon  two  factors,  its  effects  upon  production  and  its 
effects  upon  human  relations. 

Concerning  any  plan  of  control,  we  should  ask  such  questions 
as  these :  What  are  its  effects  upon  efficient  production  ?  Does  it 
offer  adequate  incentive  to  owners  and  managers?  Does  it  cause 
the  workers  to  do  their  best  work?  Does  it  tend  to  develop  the 
initiative  and  self-reliance  of  the  workers? 

Is  adequate  opportunity  afforded  for  the  self -protection  of  the 
owners?  Does  it  deprive  the  workers  of  an  adequate  opportunity 
for  self-determination,  self-expression,  and  self -development? 
Docs  it  create  a  "master  and  man"  relationship?  Are  the  workers 
dependent  upon  the  benevolence  of  the  employers?  Is  it  pater- 
nalistic or  democratic?  Are  the  interests  of  the  consumers  safe- 
guarded? On  the  whole,  does  it  tend  to  create  huge  fortunes  for 
a  few  while  many  live  in  poverty?  Does  it  promote  discord  or 
brotherhood  ? 

It  is  altogether  possible  that  under  certain  circumstances  one 
plan  of  control  will  increase  production,  while  another  will  more 
effectively  promote  human  welfare.  The  question  then  arises:  Is 
it  better  for  society  to  secure  higher  production  at  the  cost  of  the 
welfare  of  the  workers  or  to  safeguard  the  workers  at  the  cost 
of  lower  production?  It  has,  however,  by  no  means  been  proved 
that  in  the  long  run  production  would  be  lowered  by  giving  pre- 

84 


IVHAT  CHANGES  WOULD  BENEFIT  MO'ST? 

dominance  to  the  human  factor  in  industry.  Indeed,  there  is  good 
reason  to  believe  that  harmonious  human  relations — brotherhood, 
good  will,  freedom — will  ultimately  greatly  increase  production. 
From  an  ethical  viewpoint  it  seems  unquestionable  that  the  human 
factor  is  of  supreme  importance.  Can  we  agree,  therefore,  that 
that  system  of  control  of  industry  is  best  which  is  likely  to  create 
the  most  favorable  atmosphere  for  the  development  of  brother- 
hood and  unselfish  service?  Is  it  true  that  in  the  long  run  such 
a  system  will  also  increase  production? 

We  should  now  proceed  to  examine  various  types  of  control 
and  seek  to  determine,  in  the  light  of  the  efifects  upon  production 
and  upon  human  relations,  what  changes  in  control  would  most 
benefit  industry. 

1.    Exclusive  control  by  owners  and  stockholders.         The 

only  possible  answer  to  this  question  that  occurs  to  many  persons 
is  exclusive  control  by  owners  and  stockholders.  Are  they  not 
furnishing  the  capital?  Have  they  not  a  right  to  do  what  they 
like  with  that  which  is  their  own?  Is  not  the  control  of  property 
by  owners  one  of  the  corner  stones  of  our  national  life?  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  throughout  our  history,  industry  has  been  largely 
controlled  by  the  persons  who  have  furnished  the  necessary 
capital. 

The  opinion  of  Judge  E.  H.  Gary,  chairman  of  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation,  concerning  the  control  of  industry  by 
security  holders,  is  widely  accepted.  Judge  Gary  says:  "These 
must  be  recognized  as  rightfully  in  control.  Their  capital  permits 
the  existence,  the  activities,  and  the  success  of  the  corporation. 
They  properly  may  and  ultimately  will  dictate  the  personnel,  the 
governing  rules,  the  policies,  sales  and  purchases,  extensions  and 
improvements,  rates  of  compensation  to  employes,  including  special 
compensation  or  bonus  appropriations  for  merit,  terms  and  con- 
ditions of  employment,  and  all  other  matters  pertaining  to  the 
properties  and  business  and  management  of  the  corporation. 
After  the  honest  fulfilment  of  all  obligations  to  others,  they  are 
entitled,  not  only  to  a  fair  and  reasonable  return  on  their  invest- 
ments, but  to  all  the  net  proceeds  of  the  business ;  otherwise,  they 
could  not  be  expected  to  leave  their  capital  in  the  enterprise  in 
question." 

Does  exclusive  control  by  owners  increase  efficiency?  Docs  it 
leave  the  workers  at  the  mercy  of  the  employers?  What  are  its 
effects  upon  the  equitable  distribution  of  the  proceeds  of  industry? 

85 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

2.  Control  Through  Employes'  Representation.  Many  ex- 
periments are  now  being  made  with  various  types  of  shop  com- 
mittees and  other  forms  of  employes'  representation.  The  degree 
of  power  exercised  by  the  workers  varies  greatly  in  the  different 
schemes.  •  The  United  States  Steel  Corporation  has  estabhshed 
shop  committees  in  a  number  of  its  plants,  but  the  power  given 
the  workers  is  exceedingly  small  and  is  confined  to  the  making  of 
suggestions  as  to  safety,  sanitation,  recreation,  and  such  matters. 
The  workers  have  absolutely  no  voice  in  determining  wage 
schedules  and  other  major  decisions  affecting  the  industry.  The 
splendid  welfare  work  of  the  Steel  Corporation  is  conducted  on 
a  basis  of  benevolent  paternalism. 

The  Colorado  Fuel  and  Iron  Company  has  had  a  plan  of  indus- 
trial representation  in  operation  since  1915.  Each  plant  is  divided 
into  ten  sections,  from  each  of  which  the  employes  elect  at  least 
two  representatives.  These  representatives,  with  an  equal  number 
of  representatives  of  the  company,  form  a  joint  conference.  The 
employes'  representatives  act  on  behalf  of  the  employes  in  all 
matters  relating  to  their  employment,  working  conditions,  wages, 
and  adjustment  of  grievances.  The  joint  conferences  are  held 
to  discuss  matters  of  mutual  interest  and  to  consider  suggestions 
to  promote  efficiency  and  increase  production,  to  improve  working 
and  living  conditions,  to  enforce  discipline,  and  to  further  friendly 
relations  between  the  ofificials  of  the  company  and  the  employes. 
There  are  four  joint  committees,  made  up  of  six  representatives  of 
the  employes  and  six  representatives  of  the  company  as  follows : 
industrial  cooperation  and  conciliation ;  safety  and  accidents ;  sani- 
tation, health,  and  housing;  recreation  and  education.  Provision 
is  made  for  arbitration  of  such  matters  as  cannot  be  adjusted  in 
the  joint  conference  through  joint  committees.  In  the  selection 
of  the  arbitrators  the  employes  have  an  equal  vote  with  the 
company.  The  whole  plan  is  under  the  supervision  of  a  vice 
president  of  the  company  who  is  known  as  the  Industrial  Relations 
Executive.  No  discrimination  is  made  because  of  membership  or 
non-membership  in  labor  organizations.  Trade  unions  are  not 
recognized  and  eniployes  are  not  permitted  to  elect  outside  officials 
of  unions  as  their  representatives  in  the  joint  conference  or  on 
joint  committees. 

William  Filenc's  Sons  Company  of  Boston  has  an  organization 
of  employes  known  as  the  Filene  Cooperative  Association.  This 
is  a  self-governing  body  consisting  of  every  employe  of  the  com- 
pany from  the  highest-paid  official  to  the  lowest-paid  sales-girl. 

86 


IV HAT  CHANGES  IVOULD  BENEFIT  MOST? 

The  F.  C.  A.  may  initiate  new  store  rules,  working  conditions  or 
relations,  wages,  or  any  other  matters  except  policies  of  business. 
Any  measure  vetoed  by  the  management  may  be  passed  over  the 
veto  by  a  ballot  vote  of  two-thirds  of  the  membership  of  the 
F.  C.  A.  The  arbitration  board  is  composed  of  twelve  members, 
elected  by  the  employes  in  various  sections  of  the  store.  The 
management  as  such  has  no  representation  on  the  arbitration  board. 
Of  the  eleven  members  of  the  board  of  directors  of  the  company, 
four  are  employes  nominated  by  the  F.  C.  A.  and  elected  by  the 
stockholders.  The  retail  clerks  are  not  organized,  but  the  com- 
pany maintains  working  agreements  with  various  unions  of  team- 
sters, printers,  engineers,  etc.  The  plan,  with  modifications,  has 
been  in  operation  for  more  than  twenty  years  and  has  met  with 
great  success. 

The  Dutchess  Bleachery  of  Wappingers  Falls,  New  York,  has 
adopted  a  significant  plan  of  industrial  democracy.  The  board  of 
operatives  is  composed  entirely  of  employes,  and  has  wide  powers 
of  initiative  concerning  adjustment  of  grievances,  working  condi- 
tions, recreation,  education,  and  has  full  control  of  the  houses 
owned  by  the  company.  The  board  of  management  is  composed 
of  three  representatives  elected  by  the  employes  and  three  repre- 
sentatives of  the  management.  The  board  of  directors  is  composed 
of  five  members;  three  selected  from  the  management;  one  from 
the  employes,  nominated  by  the  board  of  operatives,  and  one  from 
the  community.  "The  board  of  directors  authorizes  the  statement 
that  our  partnership  plan  is  in  no  way  opposed  to  organized  labor." 

In  what  ways  does  employes'  representation  increase  or  decrease 
production?  In  what  ways  does  it  improve  or  impair  human 
relations?  Which  of  the  foregoing  types  is  likely  to  be  of  most 
benefit  to  industry  ? 

3.  Workers'  Control.  This  term  has  been  given  several  dif- 
ferent meanings.  In  certain  sections  it  means  exclusive  control  by 
hand-workers,  "the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat."  The  number 
of  persons  in  the  United  States  who  believe  in  this  sort  of  workers' 
control  is  exceedingly  small. 

Another  meaning  is  that  the  workers  shall  have  representation 
on  the  national  administrative  body  of  the  industry  and  on  the 
grievance  committees  in  the  shop.  Many  experiments  are  now 
being  made  with  this  type  of  workers'  control.  The  degree  of 
power  exercised  by  the  workers  varies  greatly  in  the  different 
schemes.   One  of  the  most  notable  agreements  is  that  between  Hart, 

87 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

Schaffner  and  Marx,  one  of  the  large  clothing  manufacturers  of 
Chicago,  and  the  Amalgamated  Clothing  Workers,  an  unusually 
strong  national  union.  This  agreement  has  a  very  wide  range 
and  includes  wages,  hours,  preference  of  union  members  in  hiring, 
working  conditions,  discipline,  etc.  Throughout  the  ten  years 
of  its  operation  this  labor  agreement  has  met  with  notable 
success.  The  basis  of  this  success  is  emphasized  in  the  preamble 
to  the  agreement:  "On  the  part  of  the  employer  it  is  the  intention 
and  expectation  that  this  compact  of  peace  will  result  in  the 
establishment  and  maintenance  of  a  high  order  of  discipline  and 
efficiency  by  the  willing  cooperation  of  union  and  workers  .... 
that  out  of  its  operation  will  issue  such  cooperation  and  good 
will  between  employers,  foremen,  union,  and  workers  as  will 
prevent  misunderstandings  and  friction  and  make  for  good  team 
work,  good  business,  mutual  advantage,  and  mutual  respect. 

"On  the  part  of  the  union  it  is  the  intention  and  expectation 
that  this  compact  will,  with  the  cooperation  of  the  employer, 
operate  in  such  a  way  as  to  maintain,  strengthen,  and  solidify  its 
organizatibn,  so  that  it  may  be  made  strong  enough,  and  efficient 
enough,  to  cooperate  as  contemplated  in  the  preceding  paragraph ; 
and  also  that  it  may  be  strong  enough  to  command  the  respect  of 
the  employer  without  being  forced  to  resort  to  militant  or  un- 
friendly measures. 

"On  the  part  of  the  workers  it  is  the  intention  and  expectation 
that  they  pass  from  the  status  of  wage  servants,  with  no  claim 
on  the  employer  save  his  economic  need,  to  that  of  self-respecting 
parties  to  an  agreement  which  they  have  had  an  equal  part  with 
him  in  making;  that  this  status  gives  them  an  assurance  of  fair 
and  just  treatment  and  protects  them  against  injustice  or  oppres- 
sion of  those  who  may  have  been  placed  in  authority  over  them; 
that  they  will  have  recourse  to  a  court,  in  the  creation  of  which 
their  votes  were  equally  potent  with  that  of  the  employer,  in 
which  all  their  grievances  may  be  heard,  and  all  their  claims 
adjudicated;  that  all  changes  during  the  life  of  the  pact  shall  be 
subject  to  the  approval  of  an  impartial  tribunal,  and  that  wages 
and  working  conditions  shall  not  fall  below  the  level  provided  for 
in  the  agreement." 

Still  another  meaning  is  that  the  means  of  production  should  be 
entirely  in  the  hands  of  workers  by  hand  and  brain.  Under  this 
form  of  control  every  person  doing  useful  work  in  an  industry — 
whether  it  be  as  a  laborer,  mechanic,  foreman,  clerk,  or  adminis- 
trative officer — would  be  regarded  as  a  worker  and  as  such  would 


IVHAT  CHANGES  WOULD  BENEFIT  MOST? 

be  entitled  to  a  share  in  the  control  of  the  industry.  This  would 
mean  the  elimination  of  owners  from  any  share  in  the  control  of 
industry.  Capital  would  be  paid  a  regular  rate  of  interest  or  there 
would  be  public  ownership  of  the  industry. 

The  National  Building  Guild  of  England  is  making  a  significant 
experiment  with  this  method  of  control.  The  Building  Guild  is 
made  up  chiefiy  of  trade  union  members  and  its  purpose  is  to  erect 
houses  without  the  necessity  of  providing  profits  for  a  contractor. 
The  minimum  rate  of  interest  is  paid  for  needed  capital.  The 
managers,  foremen,  and  workers  are  paid  regular  salaries  or  wages. 
All  operations  are  democratically  controlled.  The  workers  on  each 
job  are  organized  and,  as  a  rule,  choose  their  own  foremen.  The 
local  guild  committee  is  made  up  of  representatives  of  the  various 
trade  unions  represented  in  the  building  of  houses.  Provision  is 
also  made  for  representation  of  technical  and  administrative 
workers.  This  makes  possible  the  cooperation  of  all  types  of 
workers  by  hand  and  brain  required  in  erecting  houses.  The 
regional  and  national  organizations  are  based  upon  the  local  guild 
committee. 

The  National  Building  Guild  has  had  marked  success.  Mr. 
Ernest  Selley  was  requested  by  the  periodical.  Garden  Cities  and 
Toivn  Planning,  to  make  an  investigation  of  Guild  jobs.  His 
report  was  published  in  the  June,  1921,  issue  and  was  based  upon 
a  study  of  five  Guild  jobs  in  London  and  Manchester,  the  contracts 
of  which  called  for  986  houses.  Mr.  Selley  summarized  his  report 
in  these  words:  "(1)  The  Guilds  have  proved  that  they  are 
organized  on  business-like  lines  and  are  able  to  carry  out  building 
operations  in  a  workman-like  manner.  (2)  The  quality  of  the 
work  produced  is  distinctly  above  the  average.  (3)  The  weight 
of  evidence  goes  to  show  that  the  output  per  man  on  Guild  con- 
tracts is  as  good  as  that  obtained  by  the  best  private  contractors, 
and  certainly  higher  than  most.  (4)  It  is  not  yet  possible  to  make 
any  definite  statement  as  to  comparative  building  costs,  but,  from 
the  evidence  obtained,  there  is  ground  for  believing  that  .the  cost 
of  building  on  Guild  contracts  is  likely  to  be  lower  than  the 
average  costs  in  the  districts  where  the  Guilds  are  operating." 

What  effects  would  an  adequate  representation  of  workers  by 
hand  and  brain  on  the  national  administrative  body  of  the  industry 
and  on  local  grievance  committees  have  upon  production?  Upon 
human  relations?  Is  it  practicable  to  place  entire  control  of  an 
industry  in  the  hands  of  the  persons  employed  in  that  industry — 
hand-workers,     clerical     workers,     and     administrative     officers? 

89 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

Would  it  be  unfair  to  investors  simply  to  pay  them  regular 
interest  on  invested  capital  and  relieve  them  of  all  responsibility 
for  the  control  of  industry?  What  degree  of  workers'  control 
is  most  likely  to  benefit  industry? 

4.  Consumers'  Control.  Another  type  of  control  of  industry 
is  found  in  the  cooperative  movement.  The  primary  purpose  of 
the  cooperative  movement  is  the  elimination  of  middle  men, 
getting  products  into  the  hands  of  the  consumer  direct  from  the 
producer. 

The  most  successful  kind  of  consumers'  cooperation  is  that 
known  as  the  Rochdale  Plan,  so  called  because  it  was  first  adopted 
by  a  group  of  poor  weavers  in  Rochdale,  England.  The  initial 
capital  for  a  cooperative  store  is  secured  by  voluntary  subscriptions 
for  stock.  Democratic  control  is  insured  by  reason  of  the  fact 
that  each  member  is  entitled  to  only  one  vote,  regardless  of  the 
amount  of  stock  held.  The  minimum  rate  of  interest  is  paid  on 
invested  capital.  Goods  are  sold  for  cash  at  the  current  market 
price.  At  the  end  of  the  year  the  surplus  savings,  or  profits,  are 
used  for  the  common  social  good  of  the  members  or  distributed  as 
savings-returns  in  proportion  to  purchases. 

The  movement  has  now  spread  to  all  civilized  countries  and 
includes  retail  and  wholesale  stores,  manufacturing  plants,  agri- 
cultural production,  and  means  of  transportation.  It  is  estimated 
that  about  thirty  million  families  are  now  represented  in  the  inter- 
national cooperative  movement.  In  the  British  Isles  especially 
the  movement  has  assumed  huge  dimensions.  There  are  more 
than  1,400  societies,  with  more  than  four  million  members,  and 
187,000  employes,  with  an  annual  sale  for  factories  and  wholesale 
and  retail  stores  of  approximately  a  billion  and  a  half  dollars, 
and  an  annual  net  surplus  of  100  million  dollars  to  be  divided 
among  the  members.  The  Cooperative  Wholesale  Societies  own 
17,000  acres  of  Canadian  wheat  land,  and  12,400  acres  in  England, 
in  addition  to  many  manufacturing  concerns.  The  movement  in 
the  United  States  has  developed  slowly.  Within  the  past  three 
years,  however,  there  has  been  a  marked  increase  in  the  number 
of  cooperative  stores.  The  Rochdale  cooperative  movement  in 
the  United  States  has  been  severely  handicapped  by  the  reason  of 
the  existence  of  several  movements  which  advertised  themselves 
as  cooperative  movements,  when  in  reality  they  were  conducted 
primarily  for  the  profit  of  the  promoters.  A  number  of  these 
"fake"  cooperative  schemes  have  failed  and  this  has  tended  to  dis- 

90 


WHAT  CHANGES  WOULD  BENEFIT  MOST? 

credit  the  whole  idea  of  consumers'  cooperation.  Long  experience 
in  many  countries,  however,  has  demonstrated  that  the  cooperative 
movement  can  be  carried  on  successfully  if  the  Rochdale  principles 
are  followed. 

Does  the  cooperative  movement  provide  a  way  for  greater  effi- 
ciency in  the  distribution  of  the  products  of  industry?  Is  coopera- 
tion in  distribution  more  likely  or  less  likely  to  improve  human 
relations?  Are  there  any  types  of  industry  in  which  cooperation 
is  not  practicable? 

5.  State  Control.  The  question  of  state  control  in  industry 
is  so  complex  and  important  that  we  propose  devoting  our  next 
chapter  to  a  consideration  of  the  various  aspects  of  the  subject. 
Our  final  evaluation  of  the  merits  of  different  types  of  control 
in  industry  must,  therefore,  await  the  discussion  in  the  succeeding 
chapter. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THOUGHT  AND  DISCUSSION 

1.  Study  each  of  the  following  types  of  control  suggested  in 
the  chapter : 

Owner's  control. 
Workers'  control. 
Cooperative  control. 
State  control. 
As    you    read    make    notes    of    information    on    the    following 
questions : 

a.  What  are  the  distinctive  features  of  this  type  of  control? 

b.  In  what  ways  does  this  type  of  control  tend  to  increase  and 
in  what  ways  tend  to  decrease  production? 

c.  Does  it  help  or  hinder  the  full  development  of  human  beings? 

2.  In  the  light  of  this  study  which  type  of  control  do  you  think 
would  be  of  the  most  benefit  to  industry?  What  arc  your  reasons 
for  thinking  so? 

3.  Which  of  these  types  of  control  are  the  more  paternalistic? 
Which  the  more  democratic? 

4.  Is  paternalistic  control  more  efficient  than  democratic? 

5.  Which  type  of  control  is  the  most  beneficial  to  human 
beings  ? 

6.  In  the  long  run  which  type  of  control  will  bring  more 
progress  in  industry? 

91 


CHAPTER  10 

What  Degree  of  Public  Control  of  Industry 
Will  Best  Promote  the  General  Welfare? 

The  majority  of  the  people  in  the  United  States  have  looked 
with  disfavor  upon  most  phases  of  state  regulation  and  control  of 
industry.  And  yet  during  the  past  few  decades  a  considerable 
degree  of  control  has  been  assumed  by  the  state.  Under  what 
circumstances  is  the  public  justified  in  interfering  with  private 
control  of  industry? 

1.  Safety  and  Health  Measures.  It  is  now  generally  recog- 
nized that  the  protection  of  the  life,  health,  and  energies  of  the 
workers  is  not  an  individual  question.  It  cannot  safely  be  left  to 
the  discretion  of  the  owner  or  employer.  Consequently  a  network 
of  rules  and  regulations  have  been  adopted  by  various  legislative 
bodies  looking  to  the  greater  safety  and  better  health  of  the 
workers.  Not  until  1886  was  there  a  law  in  any  state  compelling 
the  reporting  of  industrial  accidents.  Now  such  laws  are  practi- 
cally universal.  In  1877  Massachusetts  passed  the  first  law  requir- 
ing factory  safeguards.  Practically  all  states  now  have  laws 
which  require  the  guarding  of  machinery,  the  protection  of  ele- 
vators and  hoistways,  adequate  ventilation,  lighting,  and  heating ; 
sanitary  provisions,  protection  from  infectious  disease,  and  other 
safety  measures.  Various  laws  have  been  passed  looking  to  the 
protection  of  women  and  children  in  industry.  These  laws  deal 
with  age  requirements,  physical  requirements  and  educational 
requirements  of  children  and  with  prohibited  employment  for 
women  and  children  and  for  childbirth  safeguards,  and  regulate 
hours  of  employment  for  women  and  children. 

During  the  years  from  1911  to  1919  industrial  accident  com- 
pensation laws  were  passed  in  forty-two  states.  Under  these  laws 
employers  are  required  to  insure  their  employes  against  industrial 
accidents.  The  scope  of  these  laws  varies  very  greatly  as  to 
industries,  injuries,  and  occupational  diseases  included,  and  as  to 

92 


PUBLIC  CONTROL  OF  INDUSTRY    \ 

the  scale  of  compensation.  There  is  also  a  wide  difference  in  the 
vigor  with  which  they  are  enforced.  It  is  estimated  that  in  the 
United  States  the  compensation  system  covers  from  two-thirds  to 
three-fourths  of  the  total  number  of  wage-workers.  The  primary 
purposes  of  a  compensation  act  were  set  forth  by  a  recent  writer 
in  these  words:  "To  encourage  the  prevention  of  work  injuries  as 
much  as  possible  by  affording  a  direct  incentive  to  such  prevention, 
to  restore  the  earning  capacity  of  those  injured  workmen  who 
are  capable  of  rehabilitation,  and  to  shift  the  pecuniary  cost  of 
work  injuries  from  the  immediate  victims  and  their  dependents  to 
the  community  at  large.  Economic  relief  to  the  sufferers  is  not 
merely  the  most  urgent  of  these  objects,  but  is  the  key  to  both 
the  others.  Adequate  compensation  for  fatal  and  permanent 
injuries  will  do  more  than  all  other  legislation  to  promote  indus- 
trial safety  and  to  encourage  genuine  rehabilitation." 

Most  states  and  municipalities  have  laws  relating  to  tenement- 
house  construction  and  to  the  location  of  obnoxious  establishments. 
Severe  penalties  are  attached  to  the  provisions  for  proper  disposal 
of  garbage  and  other  sanitary  measures.  The  so-called  rent  laws 
in  New  York  State  are  based  upon  the  existence  of  an  emergency 
shortage  of  houses  which  seriously  threatens  the  health  of  the 
community.  Under  these  laws  severe  limitations  are  placed  upon 
owners  of  apartment  houses,  including  limitations  upon  the  rates 
of  rent  which  may  be  charged  and  upon  the  power  to  dispossess  a 
tenant.  Alany  municipalities  require  adequate  heat  and  light  in 
apartment  houses. 

During  the  past  decade  the  effort  to  protect  the  lowest  paid 
women  workers  from  exploitation  has  taken  the  form  of  a  legal 
minimum  wage.  Twelve  states  (Arizona,  Arkansas,  California, 
Colorado,  Kansas,  Massachusetts,  Minnesota,  North  Dakota, 
Oregon,  Utah,  Washington,  Wisconsin,  and  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia) now  have  minimum  wage  laws.  These  laws  were  enacted 
because  of  the  facts  brought  out  in  numerous  investigations  that 
a  large  proportion  of  unskilled  women  workers  received  wages 
which  were  far  too  low  for  decent  self-support.  The  minimum 
wage  awards  have  remedied  the  most  flagrant  cases  of  exploitation 
in  the  states  where  they  are  in  operation.  A  recent  writer  in  the 
Monthly  Labor  Review  in  referring  to  minimum  wage  legislation, 
said:  "Not  only  have  these  laws  secured  to  women  increased  pay 
in  large  aggregate  amounts,  but  they  have  at  the  same  time 
standardized  competitive  conditions  in  the  locality,  and  largely 
done  away  with  the  secrecy  that  many  employers  have  practiced 

93 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

as  to  individual  rates,  by  which  unwarranted  discriminations  have 
been  made  possible  inside  their  establishments — results  of  great 
value  from  both  moral  and  economic  standpoints." 

2.  Control  of  Public  Utilities  and  Semi-Monopolistic  In- 
dustries. Everybody  except  anarchists  desires  a  certain  degree 
of  state  control  in  industry.  Upon  this  point  there  is  practical 
unanimity  of  opinion.  But  when  we  come  to  a  consideration  of 
various  types  and  degrees  of  state  control  we  find  conflicting 
opinions.  The  extreme  individualist,  of  the  strictest  laisse::  fairc 
school, — who  believes  that  the  good  of  all  will  best  be  served  by 
each  person  seeking  his  own  good  with  the  minimum  of  state 
interference, — is  usually  a  strong  believer  in  laws  for  the  protection 
of  property,  exclusive  franchises,  patents,  copyrights  of  trade 
names,  etc.  Quite  often  he  is  an  ardent  believer  in  protective 
tariffs,  land  grants,  water-power  privileges,  and  other  forms  of 
state  aid.  Throughout  the  history  of  the  United  States  the  most 
orthodox  individualists  have  consistently  sought  the  assistance  of 
the  government  in  building  up  private  business. 

Prior  to  1890  the  prevailing  attitude  in  the  United  States  was 
that,  aside  from  aiding  in  the  development  of  certain  private 
industries,  the  government  should  assume  a  policy  of  non-inter- 
ference in  industry.  During  the  past  three  decades,  however,  a 
marked  change  in  public  sentiment  has  taken  place.  This  change 
is  based  upon  changed  economic  conditions.  During  the  first  250 
years  of  our  history  free  land  or  cheap  land  was  available.  Indus- 
try was  in  the  handicraft  stage  or  was  conducted  in  small  factories. 
Employers  and  workers  were  on  a  relatively  equal  basis  of  bargain- 
ing power.  The  differences  between  the  rich  and  the  poor  were 
less  extreme.  There  was  greater  equality  of  opportunity  and  less 
need  for  legislative  interference. 

Conditions  today  are,  of  course,  vastly  different.  Free  land 
and  cheap  productive  land  are  gone.  Our  population  has  greatly 
increased  and  there  has  been  a  steady  growth  in  the  monopoliza- 
tion of  land.  This  is  the  age  of  machine  industry  and  productive 
units  are  constantly  growing  in  size.  Concentration  is  the  order 
of  the  day.  The  chasm  between  the  rich  and  the  poor  is  growing 
wider.  Fewer  and  fewer  workers  own  their  own  tools.  There  is 
less  equality  of  opportunity.  The  weak  are  less  able  to  protect 
themselves  from  exploitation  by  the  strong. 

As  a  result  of  the  changing  conditions,  there  has  been  an  in- 
creasing demand  during  the  past  thirty  years  for  legislative  action 

94 


PUBLIC  CONTROL  OF  LWDUSTRY 

against  monopolies  and  trusts,  and  in  favor  of  more  and  more 
governmental  control  in  industry.  Owners  of  certain  kinds  of 
industry  now  possess  only  a  limited  degree  of  control.  This  is 
true  of  industries,  classified  as  public  utilities,  and  includes  steam 
and  electric  railways,  water  transportation  lines,  express  service, 
telegraph  and  telephone,  light,  heat,  power,  and  public  water 
supply.  Various  types  of  public-utility  commissions  fix  the  rates 
of  payment  for  such  services,  determine  the  grade  of  service 
given,  and  provide  for  safety  measures  and  working  conditions. 

In  the  case  of  the  railways  two  public  bodies  exercise  a  con- 
siderable degree  of  control.  The  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
has  power  to  fix  rates  and  to  compel  the  installation  of  safety 
appliances.  The  Railroad  Labor  Board  does  not  possess  the  same 
degree  of  power  over  wages  that  the  Interstate  Commerce  Com- 
mission has  over  rates,  but  it  does  have  considerable  power  in 
this  field,  even  though  it  is  compelled  to  rely  upon  public  opinion 
for  the  enforcement  of  its  wage  decisions.  Thus  it  is  that  the 
owners  of  railway  property  do  not  have  the  power  to  determine 
passenger  and  freight  rates,  nor  to  set  wages,  without  consulting 
their  employes  or  the  Railroad  Labor  Board. 

The  extent  of  public  ownership  of  property  in  the  United  States 
is  not  generally  recognized.  In  his  annual  report  for  1921  the 
Secretary  of  the  Interior  stated  that  400  million  acres  of  land 
remain  in  the  Public  Domain  of  the  United  States  and  that  this 
contains  potential  wealth  estimated  at  150  billion  dollars.  Details 
of  this  estimate  included:  110  billion  tons  of  coal,  all  grades; 
1,325  million  barrels  of  crude  oil;  fifty  billion  barrels  of  shale  oil; 
twenty  million  tons  of  potash;  four  billion  tons  of  phosphate 
rock;  fifteen  million  water-horse-power;  seventy-five  million 
acres  of  grazing  lands,  100  million  acres  of  semi-arid  and  desert 
lands,  and  110  million  acres  of  grazing  lands  in  national  forests; 
timberlands  valued  at  580  million  dollars.^ 

The  value  of  buildings  and  other  property  in  the  United  States 
owned  by  national,  state,  county,  and  municipal  governments  runs 
into  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  and  includes  the  following: 
capitols,  court  houses,  city  halls,  official  mansions,  fire  stations, 
police  stations,  postoffices,  customs  houses,  armories,  hospitals, 
asylums,  homes  for  dependents,  baths,  schools,  colleges,  universi- 
ties, libraries,  art  galleries,  museums,  parks,  playgrounds,  botanical 


1  Quoted    in    W.    R.    Ingalls,    "Health    and    Income    of    the    American 
People,"  Appendix  I. 

95 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

gardens,  cemeteries,  agricultural  farms,  live  stock,  machinery, 
grain  elevators,  cold  storage,  bridges,  ferries,  steamships,  docks, 
markets,  gas  w^orks,  electric  plants,  water  works,  bus  lines,  street 
railways,  the  Alaskan  Railway.  One  of  the  largest  publishing 
houses  in  the  world  is  owned  by  the  United  States  government. 
From  it  are  issued  two  daily  publications,  five  weeklies,  and  seven 
monthlies,  as  well  as  hundreds  of  volumes  annually.  Considered 
in  the  aggregate  the  amount  of  property  which  is  publicly  owned 
in  the  United  States  is  enormous.  And  yet  there  is  relatively 
less  public  ownership  in  the  United  States  than  in  almost  any  other 
civilized  country. 

3.  What  Further  Extensions  of  Public  Control  or  Owner- 
ship Are  Desirable?  The  principle  of  state  interference  with 
private  industry,  in  the  interest  of  public  health  and  as  a  means 
of  protecting  the  public  welfare  against  the  menace  of  uncontrolled 
monopoly  and  excessive  concentration,  is  well  established.  With 
regard  to  the  extension  of  public  control  or  ownership,  the  test 
is  one  of  expediency.  Can  the  public  welfare  best  be  served  by 
state  control?  If  the  wisdom  of  such  a  step  can  be  established, 
the  enactment  of  necessary  legislation  does  not  involve  any  de- 
parture from  precedent.  A  number  of  such  measures  are  now 
being  advocated. 

Health  Insurance.  In  nine  states  official  commissions  have  made 
reports  concerning  the  need  for  this  type  of  social  insurance. 
There  is  a  considerable  volume  of  evidence  available  which  reveals 
industry  as  an  important  factor  in  causing  sickness.  Many  of  the 
arguments  used  in  advocacy  of  industrial  accident  insurance  are 
now  being  used  in  favor  of  compulsory  health  insurance.  The 
bills  which  have  been  introduced  in  various  state  legislatures 
usually  provide  that  the  cost  shall  be  divided  equally  between 
worker  and  employer,  and  that  the  scheme  shall  be  administered 
by  the  state.  They  usually  provide  for  a  cash  sickness  benefit 
during  twenty-six  weeks,  medical  care,  maternity  benefits,  and 
a  funeral  benefit.  Thus  far  there  has  been  considerable  popular 
opposition  to  compulsory  health  insurance  and  a  majority  of  medi- 
cal men  also  seem  to  be  opposed  to  the  idea.  Compulsory  health 
legislation  has  been  enacted  in  a  score  of  foreign  countries. 

Unemployment  Insurance.  Within  recent  years  a  number  of 
experiments  have  been  made  by  different  municipalities  and  states 
in  Europe  with  various  types  of  compulsory  unemployment  insur- 
ance.   In  England  and  in  Italy  national  schemes  of  unemployment 

% 


PUBLIC  CONTROL  OF  INDUSTRY    ^ 

insurance  are  in  operation.  Under  the  British  scheme  eacli  adult 
male  worker  pays  a  premium  of  about  eight  cents  per  week  and  the 
employer  pays  an  equal  amount.  The  government  adds  an  amount 
sufficient  to  provide  an  unemployment  benefit  of  fifteen  shillings 
per  week  (about  $3.50)  for  each  adult  male  worker  who  is  unable 
to  secure  employment,  and  twelve  shillings  for  unemployed  women. 
These  sums  are,  of  course,  wholly  inadequate,  and  yet-  even  such 
a  small  weekly  benefit  has  relieved  an  immense  amount  of  distress. 

Mr.  Seebohm  Rowntree,  director  of  a  large  manufacturing  con- 
cern in  York,  has  recently  proposed  a  much  more  comprehensive 
scheme  of  national  unemployment  benefits.  He  estimates  that  the 
total  amount  of  unemployment  in  normal  years  does  not  exceed 
five  per  cent.  Therefore,  a  tax  on  industry  of  five  per  cent  of  the 
wage-bill  would  provide  benefits  equal  to  full  pay  for  unemployed 
workers.  There  is  general  agreement  that  it  would  be  unwise  to 
make  unemployment  benefits  equal  to  full  pay.  Mr.  Rowntree 
proposes  that  the  unemployment  benefit  should  be  one-half  of  the 
regular  wage,  with  an  additional  ten  per  cent  for  a  dependent  wife, 
and  five  per  cent  for  each  dependent  child,  with  a  maximum  of 
seventy-five  per  cent  of  his  average  earnings.  Mr.  Rowntree 
estimates  that  if  the  employer  paid  a  premium  equal  to  two  and 
one-half  per  cent  of  his  wage-bill,  and  the  worker  paid  one  per 
cent  of  his  earnings,  and  the  government  granted  a  subsidy  of 
approximately  twenty  million  dollars,  an  ample  fund  would  be 
available  for  the  scale  of  unemployment  benefits  suggested  above. 
Concerning  unemployment  insurance,  Mr.  Rowntree  says :  "What 
I  want  to  plead  for  is  the  acceptance  of  the  view  that  it  is  not 
unreasonable  of  the  workers  to  demand  that,  just  as  a  well-ad- 
ministered firm  sets  aside  capital  reserve  in  periods  of  prosperity 
so  that  it  may  equalize  dividends  over  good  and  bad  years,  so  an 
industry  or  a  firm  should  establish  a  wages  equalization  fund, 
which  will  enable  it  to  pay  part  wages  to  its  reserve  of  workers 
during  the  periods  in  which  their  services  are  not  needed." 

Public  Ownership  of  Coal  Mines  and  Raiiways.  There  is  an 
increasing  demand  for  public  ownership  of  coal  mines  and  railways. 
A  plan  for  the  public  ownership  of  coal  mines  has  received  high 
official  endorsement  in  England.  In  1919  the  British  Coal  Com- 
mission was  appointed  and  authorized  to  make  a  sweeping  investi- 
gation of  the  whole  industry  and  bring  in  recommendations.  The 
British  government  agreed  in  advance  to  adopt  its  recommenda- 
tions. The  commission  was  made  statutory,  with  the  full  power 
of   Parliament  behind   it.     It   was  composed  of  twelve  commis- 

97 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

sioners  and  a  judge — three  coal  owners,  three  miners,  three  repre- 
sentatives of  allied  industries,  and  three  economists.  Mr.  Justice 
Sankey  was  made  chairman.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  investiga- 
tion, the  chairman  began  his  report  with  these  words :  "I  recom- 
mend that  Parliament  be  invited  immediately  to  pass  legislation 
acquiring  the  coal  royalties  for  the  state  and  paying  fair  and  just 
compensation  to  the  owners.  I  recommend  on  the  evidence  before 
me  that  the  principle  of  state  ownership  of  the  mines  be  accepted." 
He  then  went  on  to  recommend  the  creation  of  a  national  mining 
council,  district  mining  councils,  and  local  mining  councils,  in  all 
of  which  representation  should  be  provided  for  workers,  consumers, 
and  the  technical  and  commercial  side  of  the  industry.  These 
recommendations  were  not  accepted  by  the  government,  but  there 
is  a  widespread  feeling  that  efficiency  and  stability  in  the  coal 
industry  of  Great  Britain  will  never  be  secured  until  such  a  plan 
is  adopted. 

The  United  Mine  Workers  of  American  are  now  advocating  the 
nationalization  of  the  coal  mines.  The  American  Federation  of 
Labor  has  officially  endorsed  the  Plumb  Plan,  calling  for  public 
ownership  of  the  railways,  and  joint  operation  by  representatives 
of  managers,  workers,  and  the  public. 

Taxation  as  a  Means  of  Preventing  Excessive  Concentration  of 
Wealth.  That  huge  fortunes  are  a  possible  menace  to  public  wel- 
fare is  now  generally  recognized.  Taxation  is  often  suggested 
as  one  of  the  most  effective  ways  of  limiting  the  excessive  con- 
centration of  wealth.  In  the  final  report  of  the  Federal  Commis- 
sion on  Industrial  Relations  a  recommendation  was  made  that 
personal  fortunes  in  the  United  States  be  limited  to  one  million 
dollars.  If  such  a  limitation  seemed  desirable  to  a  majority  of  the 
people  of  the  country,  the  means  are  at  hand. 

The  income  tax  is  now  firmly  established  in  this  country.  In 
1894  a  federal  income-tax  law  in  the  United  States  was  declared 
unconstitutional.  In  1909  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  giving 
Congress  power  "to  lay  and  collect  taxes  on  incomes,  from  what- 
ever source  derived"  was  submitted  to  the  states  and  on  February 
25,  1913,  was  declared  adopted,  having  been  ratified  by  the  neces- 
sary two-thirds  of  the  states. 

Under  the  United  States  Revenue  Act  of  1918,  provision  was 
made  for  a  progressive  income  tax,  the  rates  ranging  from  four 
per  cent  on  incomes  of  $3,000  to  a  combined  normal  and  surtax 
of  seventy-three  per  cent  on  incomes  of  more  than  a  million 
dollars.    The  total  tax  on  incomes  of  $100,000  was  fifty-six  per 

98 


PUBLIC  CONTROL  OF  INDUSTRY     ^ 

cent.  In  addition  to  the  federal  government,  many  of  the  states 
levy  an  income  tax. 

The  federal  income  tax  has  proved  to  be  a  huge  success  as  a 
revenue  measure.  The  amount  received  from  this  source  has 
jumped  from  less  than  sixty-one  million  dollars  in  1914  to  more 
than  3,956  millions  in  1920.  Up  to  the  present  time,  however,  it 
has  not  succeeded  to  any  considerable  extent  in  limiting  the 
growth  of  great  fortunes.  The  wealth  of  many  rich  men  has 
more  than  doubled  since  1914,  when  the  federal  income-tax  law 
became  effective,  and  in  many  cases  the  increase  has  been  upwards 
of  500  per  cent.  The  reasons  for  this  failure  are  obvious.  Even 
after  the  1921  tax  is  deducted  from  a  million-dollar  income,  there 
remains  a  sum  of  $336,810,  and  at  the  1922  rate  the  amount  re- 
maining is  $449,360.  Then,  too,  there  are  many  ways  of  evading 
the  tax  on  large  portions  of  income.  Interest  from  many  govern- 
ment bonds  and  certain  other  forms  of  income  are  non-taxable. 

The  significance  of  the  income  tax  has  not  been  fully  realized 
by  the  American  people.  Already  we  have  experimented  with 
rates  varying  from  fifty-six  to  seventy-three  per  cent  on  incomes 
above  $100,000  a  year.  If  the  exemption  on  certain  government 
bonds  and  other  securities  should  be  withdrawn  and  the  rates  of 
incomes  above  $100,000  should  be  increased  to  eighty  or  ninety 
per  cent,  and  a  graded  tax  should  be  placed  on  undistributed  earn- 
ings of  corporations,  it  would  be  possible  to  prevent  the  accumu- 
lation of  excessively  large  fortunes. 

The  Inheritance  Tax.  Andrew  Carnegie  often  said  that  it  was 
a  disgrace  for  a  man  to  die  rich.  The  levying  of  death  duties  or 
inheritance  taxes  goes  back  to  the  beginning  of  recorded  history, 
and  today  they  are  used  almost  universally  throughout  the  civilized 
world.  The  inheritance  tax  is  now  firmly  installed  as  a  permanent 
part  of  our  federal  financial  system.  Under  the  Revenue  Act  of 
February,  1919,  the  inheritance  tax  on  estates  varied  from  one  per 
cent  on  estates  not  in  excess  of  $50,000  to  twenty-five  per  cent  on 
estates  above  ten  millions.  Estates  under  $50,000  are  exempt  from 
the  inheritance  tax.  Forty-five  of  the  States  also  levy  inheritance 
taxes,  the  rates  varying  from  one  per  cent  to  thirty  per  cent, 
according  to  the  amount  of  the  estate  and  the  kinship  of  the  heir. 

Inheritance  taxes  have  not  thus  far  been  successful  in  checking 
the  growth  of  great  fortunes,  due  to  three  reasons :  First,  they 
have  not  been  used  on  an  effective  scale  for  a  sufficient  length  of 
time;  second,  the  rates  have  not  been  sufficiently  high,  even  under 
the  federal  tax  and  the  highest  state  taxes  direct  heirs  may  inherit 

99 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

$750,000  out  of  a  million-dollar  estate,  while  indirect  heirs  may 
inherit  $600,000  out  of  one  million  dollars;  third,  large  fortunes 
are  usually  distributed  prior  to  the  death  of  the  owner. 

Are  we  now  ready  to  reach  any  conclusions  as  to  what  changes 
in  control  would  most  benefit  industry?  What  is  our  estimate  of 
exclusive  control  by  owners?  Of  control  through  employes'  repre- 
sentation? Of  workers'  control?  Of  consumers'  control?  Of 
state  control? 

What  degree  of  public  control  of  industry  will  best  promote 
the  general  welfare?  Each  proposal  should  be  tested  by  such  ques- 
tions as  these:  Is  it  necessary  for  the  protection  of  the  public 
health  and  welfare?  It  is  the  most  efficient  way  of  achieving  the 
desired  end?  Does  it  tend  to  place  industry  on  a  basis  of  produc- 
tion for  use?  Does  it  promote  cooperation  in  industry?  Will  it 
aid  in  securing  an  equitable  division  of  the  national  wealth  and 
income?    Will  it  promote  genuine  democracy? 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THOUGHT  AND  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  laws  and  regulations  are  there  in  your  community  in 
the  interests  of  safety  and  health? 

2.  Who  controls  the  water  works,  the  electric  light  plants, 
street  cars,  and  other  public  utilities  in  your  community? 

3.  V/hat  is  the  extent  of  public  control  and  ownership  in  the 
United  States?    Is  it  decreasing  or  increasing? 

4.  Under  what  circumstances,  if  any,  is  the  public  justified  in 
regulating  private  industries?  Under  what  circumstances,  if  any, 
is  public  ownership  desirable? 

5.  When  does  an  industry  become  of  public  concern? 

6.  What  are  the  principles  by  which  it  may  be  determined? 
What  degree  of  public  control  of  industry  will  best  promote  the 
general  welfare? 

7.  Do  you  favor  the  extension  of  public  control?  If  so,  to 
what  degree?    If  not,  why  not? 

8.  Is  the  public  justified  in  using  taxation  to  secure  a  more 
equitable  distribution  of  wealth? 


100 


CHAPTER  11 

How  Rapidly  Can  a  Christian  Economic 
Order  Be  Achieved? 

In  our  opening  chapter  we  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  in 
every  quarter  the  present  economic  order  is  being  challenged  and 
that  many  are  saying  that  life  is  almost  intolerable  for  masses  of 
the  people.  In  the  intervening  chapters  we  have  attempted  to 
analyze  economic  conditions  in  the  United  States  and  to  point 
out  the  sources  of  division  and  inefificiency.  In  the  light  of  this 
study,  is  it  true  to  say  that  there  is  an  appalling  amount  of  suffer- 
ing and  misery  and  that  there  is  widespread  exploitation  and 
inj  ustice  ? 

1.  Is  a  Christian  Economic  Order  Practicable?  Many  per- 
sons say  that  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  conduct  modern  industry 
on  a  basis  of  the  spirit  of  Jesus.  Such  persons  say  that  it  is 
futile  to  expect  business  men  to  regard  their  competitors  as  brothers 
and  to  manifest  only  good  will  and  love  toward  them,  or  to  trans- 
form the  antagonisms  between  employers  and  workers  into  mutual 
service  for  the  common  good.  There  is  a  widespread  feeling  that 
"not  until  the  millennium  comes"  will  bankers,  manufacturers, 
merchants,  brokers,  plumbers,  bricklayers,  and  miners  be  dominated 
by  the  same  motives  which  prompt  the  highest  kind  of  service  by 
teachers,  nurses,  scientists,  preachers,  and  missionaries.  It  is  con- 
tended that  there  is  no  hope  of  achieving  a  Christian  economic 
order  for  many  generations  to  come. 

There  is  much  to  be  said  in  favor  of  this  point  of  view.  The 
Christian  forces  have  been  seeking  for  nineteen  centuries  to  estab- 
lish the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  Thus  far  they  have  not 
wholly  succeeded.  The  presence  of  many  giant  evils  in  our  day 
is  conclusive  proof  of  their  incomplete  success.  To  move  any 
appreciable  distance  toward  the  achievement  of  a  Christian  eco- 
nomic order  in  this  generation  is  a  stupendous  task.     No  useful 

101 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

purpose   is  served  by  attempting  to  deny   the  magnitude  of   the 
difficulties  to  be  overcome. 

Lethargy  and  indifference  are  responsible  for  much  of  our  lack 
of  progress.  Most  people  find  it  exceedingly  difficult  to  get  out  of 
the  rut  of  routine  and  to  exert  themselves  continuously  for  social 
progress.  The  problem  is  intensified  by  the  fact  that  too  often 
men  do  not  know  "how  the  other  half  lives"  and  are  not  sufficiently 
concerned  to  find  out  the  extent  of  injustice  and  suffering.  This 
lack  of  sensitiveness  and  the  unawareness  of  the  presence  of 
monstrous  wrongs  and  widespread  misery  is  a  common  character- 
istic even  among  religious  people. 

The  situation  is  further  complicated  by  reason  of  the  strong 
tendency  to  defend  the  status  quo.  The  presumption  is  usually  in 
favor  of  things-as-they-are.  Tradition,  custom,  and  social  habit 
exert  a  tremendous  influence  over  a  community  and  can  be  dis- 
placed only  with  great  difficulty. 

Ignorance  is  one  of  the  chief  obstacles  blocking  the  way  to  the 
achievement  of  a  Christian  economic  order.  Men  with  the  best 
intentions  are  puzzled  to  know  how  they  can  live  truly  Christian 
lives  under  present  conditions.  Modern  economic  life  is  extremely 
complex.  Our  maladies  are  rooted  in  the  distant  past  and  cannot 
be  cured  by  surface  remedies.  A  correct  diagnosis  requires  keen 
observation  and  great  skill. 

There  is  no  room  for  doubt  as  to  the  seriousness  of  the  diffi- 
culties which  confront  the  follower  of  Jesus  in  this  day.  And  yet 
one  of  the  notable  characteristics  of  true  Christians  through  the 
ages  has  been  an  indomitable  optimism,  a  refusal  to  be  discouraged 
at  the  magnitude  of  the  task  to  be  accomplished.  Again  and  again 
the  attitude  taken  toward  enormous  difficulties  has  been :  They  can 
be  overcome. 

Christians  in  every  land  have  received  a  powerful  stimulus  from 
the  conviction  that  they  were  working  in  cooperation  with  the 
Holy  Spirit.  They  have  felt  that  their  weakness  would  be  supple- 
mented by  the  power  of  the  living  God.  They  have  remembered 
the  words  of  our  Lord :  "And,  lo,  I  am  with  you  always,  even  to 
the  end  of  the  world."  "Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  my  name, 
that  will  I  give  you."  "Ask  and  ye  shall  receive,  seek  and  ye 
shall  find,  knock  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you."  "When  he, 
the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  he  shall  guide  you  into  all  truth." 
"Greater  things  than  these  shall  ye  do  because  I  go  unto  the 
Father."  "With  God  all  things  are  possible."  "My  Father 
worketh  even  until  now,  and  I  work." 

102 


A  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMIC  ORDER      \ 

The  faith  and  courage  of  the  Apostle  Paul  have  been  reflected 
in  true  Christians  of  all  ages  :  "I  can  do  all  things  in  Him  that 
strengtheneth  me."  "And  my  God  shall  fulfill  every  need  of  yours 
according  to  His  riches  in  glory  in  Christ  Jesus."  "For  I  am  not 
ashamed  of  the  Gospel :  for  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation 
to  every  one  that  believeth."  "I  press  on  toward  the  goal  unto 
the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus." 

In  the  realm  of  human  relations  nothing  is  impossible  for  the 
Christian.  All  men  are  created  in  the  Divine  Image  and  have 
vast  undeveloped  capacities  for  brotherhood  and  service.  Mutual 
aid  operates  as  truly  as  antagonism.  In  every  human  being  are 
unbounded  capacities  for  self-denial  and  vicarious  sacrifice.  This 
generation  needs  no  further  proof  at  this  point.  During  these 
recent  years  we  have  witnessed  a  world-wide  demonstration  of  the 
capacity  of  human  beings  to  undergo  privation,  danger,  suffering, 
death,  and  bereavement  for  the  sake  of  a  common  cause.  Latent 
within  every  human  being  is  the  capacity  to  forget  selfish  aims  in 
the  enthusiasm  of  serving  the  common  good. 

There  is  also  a  vast  store  of  creative  ability  now  being  left  un- 
developed and  unused.  Professor  J.  A.  Hobson  says :  "The 
assumption  that  artistic  and  inventive  faculty  is  exceedingly  rare, 
because  it  has  so  seldom  been  displayed,  must  be  boldly  chal- 
lenged  It  is  likely  that   far  more  human  genius   is  lost 

than  is  saved,  even  in  the  more  civilized  nations  of  today."  One 
of  the  things  Jesus  did  for  His  disciples  was  to  release  the  latent 
power  of  their  lives.  At  its  best  the  Christian  religion  has 
throughout  the  centuries  quickened  the  consciences,  revolutionized 
the  motives,  and  given  new  power  to  its  followers. 

The  Christian  of  this  day  receives  encouragement  from  a  study 
of  history.  Men  in  other  generations  with  less  adequate  resources 
faced  problems  equally  as  serious  as  any  with  which  we  are  con- 
fronted. Many  great  evils  of  other  days  have  been  abolished. 
For  ages  man's  conception  of  God  caused  him  to  offer  human 
sacrifices  upon  the  altar.  Throughout  long  periods  of  human 
history  men  delighted  in  the  sight  of  blood  and  in  their  most 
popular  sports  man  was  pitted  against  man,  and  man  against  beast. 
Stadiums  rocked  with  applause  at  the  sight  of  human  blood  upon 
the  sand.  Throughout  much  of  human  history  woman  was  a  beast 
of  burden  or  a  mere  plaything  for  man.  The  sale  of  children  by 
parents  has  been  an  accepted  custom  in  many  lands.  The  beginning 
of  human  slavery  is  lost  in  antiquity.  It  has  been  said  that 
civilization  began  with  the  crack  of  the  whip.     For  ages  private 

103 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

quarrels  were  fought  out  in  mortal  combat  and  duelling  was 
accepted  as  inevitable  and  desirable.  There  is  no  record  of  a  time 
when  men  did  not  drink  intoxicating  liquors,  and  yet  in  America 
steps  have  recently  been  taken  which  have  eliminated  a  con- 
siderable proportion  of  drunkenness  and  in  the  next  decade  will 
reduce  it  still  further.  For  ages  man  groped  in  darkness  with  only 
a  glimmer  of  light.  Magic  and  superstition  were  all-powerful. 
The  scientific  method  was  long  regarded  as  heresy.  Men  of 
science,  dominated  by  a  passion  for  truth,  were  imprisoned,  tor- 
tured, and  burned. 

One  of  the  encouraging  signs  of  the  times  is  the  new  sensitive- 
ness to  suffering  and  injustice.  The  very  fact  that  a  volume  of 
protest  is  arising  and  that  everywhere  men  are  seeking  a  way  out 
of  the  present  distress,  gives  hope  for  the  future.  In  past  ages 
when  men  became  sensitive  to  any  great  evil,  made  up  their  minds 
that  it  must  be  abolished,  and  set  about  the  task  with  determination, 
they  have  succeeded  to  a  marked  degree.  And  so  will  it  be  with 
present  evils.  They  can  be  overcome.  They  must  be  overcome. 
We  must  refuse  to  regard  as  inevitable  any  evil  in  modern  life. 
We  must  refuse  to  tolerate  any  immoral  practice,  no  matter  how 
deep  rooted  in  the  past  it  may  be  or  how  difficult  seems  the  task 
of  uprooting  it. 

This  attitude  is  now  becoming  increasingly  characteristic  of  the 
churches  in  the  United  States.  In  many  quarters  there  is  a  new 
conscience  concerning  exploitation  and  injustice  in  economic  life. 
A  multitude  of  Christian  laymen  and  ministers  are  insisting  that 
these  wrongs  must  be  righted  and  are  exerting  themselves  strenu- 
ously to  this  end. 

One  evidence  of  this  fact  is  found  in  "The  Social  Ideals  of  the 
Churches"  adopted  by  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of 
Christ  in  America.  The  Federal  Council  is  composed  of  official 
representatives  of  thirty-one  Protestant  religious  bodies,  the  total 
membership  of  which  is  over  twenty  million  persons. 

Social  Ideals  of  the  Church^ 

Action  Taken  by  the  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in 
America  at  a  Special  Meeting  Held  at   Cleveland,  Ohio,  May 
6-8,  1919. 
Resolved,  That  we  reaffirm  the  social  platform  adopted  by  the 


^  Copies  of  "The  Social  Ideals  of  the  Churches"  may  be  secured  from  the 
Federal  Council  of  Churches,  105  East  22d  Street,  New  York  City. 

104 


A  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMIC  ORDER       ^ 

First   Quadrennial   in   Chicago,    1912,  and  ratified  by  the   Second 
Quadrennial  in  St.  Louis,  1916. 
That  the  churches  stand  for  : 

I.     Equal  rights  and  justice  for  all  men  in  all  stations  of  life. 
II.     Protection  of  the  family  by  the  single  standard  of  purity, 
uniform    divorce    laws,    proper    regulation    of    marriage,    proper 
housing. 

III.  The  fullest  possible  development  of  every  child,  especially 
by  the  provision  of  education  and  recreation. 

IV.  Abolition  of  child  labor. 

V.     Such  regulation  of  the  conditions  of  toil  for  women  as 
shall  safeguard  the  physical  and  moral  health  of  the  community. 
VI.     Abatement  and  prevention  of  poverty. 
VII.     Protection  of  the  individual  and  society  from  the  social, 
economic,  and  moral  waste  of  the  liquor  traffic. 
VIII.     Conservation  of  health. 
IX.     Protection   of    the    worker    from   dangerous    machinery, 
occupational  diseases,  and  mortality. 

X.  The  right  of  all  men  to  the  opportunity  for  self-main- 
tenance, for  safeguarding  this  right  against  encroachments  of  every 
kind,  for  the  protection  of  workers  from  the  hardships  of  enforced 
unemployment. 

XI.  Suitable  provision  for  the  old  age  of  the  workers,  and 
for  those  incapacitated  by  injury. 

XII.  The  right  of  employes  and  employers  alike  to  organize; 
and  for  the  adequate  means  of  conciliation  and  arbitration  in 
industrial  disputes. 

XIII.  Release  from  employment  one  day  in  seven. 

XIV.  Gradual  and  reasonable  reduction  of  hours  of  labor  to 
the  lowest  practicable  point,  and  for  that  degree  of  leisure  for  all 
which  is  a  condition  of  the  highest  human  life. 

XV.  A  living  wage  as  a  minimum  in  every  industry,  and  for 
the  highest  wage  that  each  industry  can  afford. 

XVI.  A  new  emphasis  upon  the  application  of  Christian  prin- 
ciples to  the  acquisition  and  use  of  property,  and  for  the  most 
equitable  division  of  the  product  of  industry  that  can  ultimately 
be  devised. 

Facing  the  social  issues  involved  in  reconstruction. 
Resolved,  That  we  affirm  as  Christian  Churches : 

1.  That  the  teachings  of  Jesus  are  those  of  essential  democracy 
and  express  themselves  through  brotherhood  and  the  cooperation 
of  all  groups.  We  deplore  class  struggle  and  declare  against  all 
class  domination,  whether  of  capital  or  labor.  Sympathizing  with 
labor's  desire  for  a  better  day  and  an  equitable  share  in  the  profits 
and  management  of  industry,  we  stand  for  orderly  and  progressive 
social  reconstruction  instead  of  revolution  by  violence. 

2.  That  an  ordered  and  constructive  democracy  in  industry  is 

105 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

as  necessary  as  political  democracy,  and  that  collective  bargaining 
and  the  sharing  of  shop  control  and  management  are  inevitable 
steps  in  its  attainment. 

3.  That  the  first  charge  upon  industry  should  be  that  of  a  wage 
sufficient  to  support  an  American  standard  of  living.  To  that  end 
we  advocate  the  guarantee  of  a  minimum  wage,  the  control  of 
unemployment  through  government  labor  exchanges,  public  works, 
land  settlement,  social  insurance,  and  experimentation  in  profit 
sharing  and  cooperative  ownership. 

4.  We  recognize  that  women  played  no  small  part  in  the 
winning  of  the  war.  We  believe  that  they  should  have  full  politi- 
cal and  economic  equality  with  equal  pay  for  equal  work,  and  a 
maximum  eight-hour  day.  We  declare  for  the  abolition  of  night 
work  by  women,  and  the  abolition  of  child  labor;  and  for  the 
provision  of  adequate  safeguards  to  insure  the  moral  as  well  as 
the  physical  health  of  the  mothers  and  children  of  the  race. 

A  pronouncement  concerning  social  reconstruction  has  been 
issued  by  the  Administrative  Committee  of  the  National  Catholic 
War  Council,  an  official  organization  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  in  the  United  States.^  Brief  extracts  from  this  statement 
are  as  follows : 

One  general  principle  is  clear :  No  female  workers  should  remain 
in  any  occupation  that  is  harmful  to  health  or  morals.  .  .  .  _.  The 
proportion  of  women  in  industry  ought  to  be  kept  within  the 
smallest  practical  limits.  Those  women  who  are  engaged  at  the 
same  tasks  as  men  should  receive  equal  pay  for  equal  amounts  and 
qualities  of  work 

In  passing,  it  may  be  noted  that  government  competition  with 
monopolies  that  cannot  be  effectively  restrained  by  the  ordinary 
anti-trust  laws  deserves  more  serious  consideration  than  it  has  yet 
received.  More  important  and  more  effective  than  any  govern- 
ment regulation  of  prices  would  be  the  establishment  of  coopera- 
tive stores In  addition  to  reducing  the  cost  of  living,  the 

cooperative  stores  would  train  our  working  people  and  consumers 
generally  in  habits  of  saving,  in  careful  expenditure,  in  business 

methods,   and  in  the  capacity  of  cooperation They  will 

then  realize  the  folly  of  excessive  selfishness  and  senseless  indi- 
vidualism  

We  are  glad  to  note  that  there  is  no  longer  any  serious  objection 
urged  by  impartial  persons  against  the  legal  minimum  wage.  The 
several  states  should  enact  laws  providing  for  the  establishment  of 
wage  rates  that  will  be  at  least  sufficient  for  the  decent  mainte- 
nance of  a  family,  in  the  case  of  all  male  adults,  and  adequate 


^  Copies  may  be  secured   from  the   Council,   1312  Massachusetts  Avenue, 
X.  W.,  Washington,  D.  C, 

106 


A  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMIC  ORDER 

to  the  decent  individual  support  of  female  workers.  In  the  be- 
ginning the  minimum  wages  for  male  workers  should  suffice  only 
for  the  present  needs  of  the  family,  but  they  should  be  gradually 
raised  until  they  are  adequate  to  future  needs  as  well.  That  is, 
they  should  be  ultimately  high  enough  to  make  possible  that 
amount  of  saving  which  is  necessary  to  protect  the  worker  and  his 
family  against  sickness,  accidents,  invalidity,  and  old  age.  Until 
this  level  of  legal  minimum  wages  is  reached  the  worker  stands  in 
need  of  the  device  of  insurance.  The  state  should  make  compre- 
hensive provision  for  insurance  against  illness,  invalidity,  unem- 
ployment, and  old  age.  So  far  as  possible  the  insurance  fund 
should  be  raised  by  a  levy  on  industry,  as  is  now  done  in  the  case 
of  accident  compensation.  The  industry  in  which  a  man  is  em- 
ployed should  provide  him  with  all  that  is  necessary  to  meet  all 
the  needs  of  his  entire  life 

The  right  of  labor  to  organize  and  to  deal  with  employers 
through  representatives  has  been  asserted  above  in  connection  with 
the  discussion  of  the  War  Labor  Board.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
this  right  will  never  again  be  called  in  question  by  any  consider- 
able number  of  employers 

It  seems  clear  that  the  present  industrial  system  is  destined  to 

last  for  a  long  time  in  its  main  outlines Nevertheless,  the 

present  system  stands  in  grievous  need  of  considerable  modifica- 
tions and  improvement.  Its  main  defects  are  three:  Enormous 
inefficiency  and  waste  in  the  production  and  distribution  of  com- 
modities ;  insufficient  incomes  for  the  great  majority  of  wage- 
earners,  and  unnecessarily  large  incomes  for  a  small  minority  of 

privileged  capitalists The   full   possibilities   of  increased 

production  v/ill  not  be  realized  so  long  as  the  majority  of  the 
workers  remain  mere  wage-earners.  The  majority  must  somehow 
become  owners,  or  at  least  in  part,  of  the  instruments  of  produc- 
tion. They  can  be  enabled  to  reach  this  stage  through  coopera- 
tive productive  societies  and  copartnership  arrangements 

Changes  in  our  economic  and  political  system  will  have  only 
partial  and  feeble  efficiency  if  they  be  not  reinforced  by  the  Chris- 
tian view  of  work  and  wealth The  employer  has  a  right  to 

get  a  reasonable  living  out  of  his  business,  but  he  has  no  right 
to  interest  on  his  investment  until  his  employes  have  obtained  at 
least  living  wages.  This  is  the  human  and  Christian,  in  contrast 
to  the  purely  commercial  and  pagan,  ethics  of  industry. 

The  Central  Conference  of  American  Rabbis  has  issued  a 
"Social  Justice  Program,"^  from  which  we  quote  as  follows: 

The  Conference  recognizes  the  right  of  Labor  to  organize  and 
to  bargain  collectively  through  representatives  of  its  own  choosing 

1  Printed  in  The  Survey,  September  1,  1920,  p.  654.  Copies  may  be 
secured  from  Rabbi  Horace  J.   Wolf,  Rochester,  N.   Y. 

107 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

as  an  instrument  by  which  to  secure  its  rights  at  the  hands  of  the 
employers.  It  further  recognizes  the  right  of  labor  to  share  more 
equitably  in  determining  the  conditions  of  labor  as  well  as  in 
the  reward 

The  Conference  condemns  all  slacking  and  sabotage,  and  de- 
nounces as  subversive  of  the  safety  of  society  and  of  the  well- 
being  of  the  republic  the  use  of  violence  in  industrial  dispute.  It 
calls  upon  labor  as  well  as  upon  capital  to  exhaust  all  the  re- 
sources of  peaceable  settlement  before  resorting  to  the  strike  or 
the  lockout.  It  maintains  the  welfare  of  the  public  to  be  supreme 
above  the  interests  of  any  class  or  classes. 

The  inequalities  of  living  and  earning  conditions,  intolerable 
even  before  the  war  and  rendered  still  more  flagrant  as  a  result 
of  the  world  upheaval,  demand  immediate  adjustment 

It  declares  its  abhorrence  of  all  interference,  whether  by  private 
citizens  or  by  officials,  with  the  exercise  of  freedom  of  speech, 
oral  or  written,  and  of  freedom  of  assemblage,  both  of  which  are 
guaranteed  by  the  Constitution.  And  it  further  condemns  the 
use  of  private  police  under  the  guise  of  and  in  the  capacity  of 
public  administrators  of  the  law  as  tyrannical  and  conducive  to 
injustice  and  violence 

The  Conference  urges  as  axiomatic  the  following  industrial 
norms,  which  have  been  stressed  in  previous  declarations  of  this 
Conference,  viz.,  the  legal  enactment  of  an  eight-hour  day  as  a 
maximum  for  all  industrial  workers;  a  compulsory  one-day-of- 
rest-in-seven  for  all  workers,  to  whom  shall  be  assured  the  right 
of  observing  their  Sabbath  in  accordance  with  their  religious 
convictions ;  the  regulation  of  industrial  conditions  to  secure  for 
all  workers  a  safe  and  sanitary  working  environment  with  par- 
ticular attention  to  the  special  needs  of  women;  the  abolition  of 
child  labor  and  the  raising  of  the  standards  of  age  wherever  the 
legal  age  limit  is  lower  than  is  consistent  with  moral  and  physical 
health ;  adequate  workingmen's  compensation  for  industrial  acci- 
dents and  occupational  diseases  and  provision  for  the  contingencies 
of  unemployment  and  old  age. 

These  official  pronouncements  by  representatives  of  three  great 
religious  forces  in  the  United  States  reveal  the  extent  of  the 
interest  of  the  churches  in  social  problems.  In  addition  to  these 
official  statements,  there  are  several  significant  religious  move- 
ments of  an  unofficial  nature  which  are  exerting  themselves 
on  behalf  of  a  new  social  order. 

One  of  these  is  the  Fellowship  of  Reconciliation,  which  has 
now    been    operating    for    about    seven    years. ^      The    following 


1  Persons  desiring  further  information  concerning  this  movement  should 
write  to  Bishop  Paul  Jones,  Secretary,  396  Broadway,  New  York  City. 

108 


A  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMIC  ORDER 

paragraphs    taken    from    its    statement    of    principles    reveal    the 
basis  of  its  activities  : 

The  Fellowship  of  Reconciliation  is  a  group  of  persons  who, 
individually  and  collectively,  seek  more  uncompromising  practice 
of  the  principles  of  Christ  in  personal  and  social  action,  believing 
that  in  Him  we  have  the  satisfying  solution  of  all  the  problems  of 
our  complex  life.  It  unites  men  and  women  expressing  in  various 
forms  their  common  Christian  faith,  who  are  profoundly  disturbed 
by  the  confusion  of  thought  and  utterance  throughout  the  Christian 
world  with  regard  to  war  and  other  great  social  and  industrial 
questions.  To  the  members  of  the  Fellowship  it  appears  that  in 
accepting  as  inevitable  the  present  world  order  we  have  all  failed 
to  interpret  the  mind  of  Christ,  and  that  confidence  in  His  leader- 
ship involves  us  in  the  endeavor  to  apply  unflinchingly  His  revo- 
lutionary principle  of  love. 

Without  wishing  to  bind  themselves  to  any  exact  forni  of  words, 
they  would  state  their  general  agreement  on  the  following  points : 

That  Love  as  revealed  and  interpreted  in  the  life,  teachings,  and 
death  of  Jesus  Christ  is  not  only  the  fundamental  basis  of  a  true 
human  society,  but  the  effective  power  for  overcoming  evil  and 
for  accomplishing  His  redemptive  purposes. 

That  since  these  purposes  must  be  fulfilled  through  men  and 
women,  it  is  incumbent  upon  the  followers  of  Christ  to  endeavor 
to  practice  unswervingly  his  principle  of  love  as  the  inviolable 
law  of  personal  relationships,  and  the  transforming  power  of 
human  life,  and  to  take  the  riski  involved  in  applying  this  prin- 
ciple in  a  world  which  does  not  yet  accept  it. 

That  the  love  revealed  in  Christ  profoundly  reverences  per- 
sonality; strives  to  create  an  order  of  society  which  suffers  no 
individual  to  be  exploited  for  the  profit  or  pleasure  of  another, 
but  assures  to  each  the  means  of  development  for  his  highest 
usefulness ;  seeks  reconciliation  between  man  and  man,  class_  and 
class,  nation  and  nation,  race  and  race ;  deepens  and  enriches 
devotion  to  home,  to  church,  and  to  country,  and  harmonizes  all 
these  loyalties  in  dedication  of  life  to  humanity  and  to  the  universal 
Kingdom  of  Christ. 

That  since  war  inevitably  involves  violation  of  these  principles 
and  disregard  of  the  supreme  value  of  personality,  we  find  our-, 
selves  unable  to  engage  in  it ;  and,  since  the  existing  organization 
of  society  engenders  motives  and  methods  which  violate  these 
principles  and  hinder  the  development  of  character  into  the  likeness 
of  Christ,  we  are  convinced  that  loyalty  to  Him  and  to  humanity 
calls  us  to  seek  with  others  such  fundamental  changes  in  the 
spirit  of  men  and  in  the  structure  of  the  social  order  as  shall 
make  possible  the  full  expression  of  love  in  personal,  social,  indus- 
trial, national,  and  international  life. 

109 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

Within  the  past  few  months  the  Fellowship  for  a  Christian 
Social  Order  has  been  inaugurated.^  At  its  recent  conference  at 
Lake  Alohonk,  which  was  attended  by  representatives  from  many 
sections  of  the  United  States,  a  statement  was  adopted  as  its 
basis,  from  which  we  quote  as  follows : 

I. 
This  Fellowship  binds  together  for  mutual  counsel,  inspiration, 
and  cooperation,  men  and  women  who  are  seeking   fundamental 
changes   in  the  spirit  and  structure  of  the  present   social  order 
through  loyalty  to  Jesus'  way  of  life. 

II. 
We   believe  that   human    fellowship  has  its  necessary  basis   in 
fellowship  with  God  as  He  is  revealed  in  Jesus. 

III. 
As  we  interpret  the  life  and  teaching  of  Jesus,  the  supreme  task 
of  mankind  is  the  creation  of  a  social  order,  the  Kingdom  of  God 
on  earth,  wherein  the  maximum  opportunity  shall  be  afforded  for 
the  development  and  enrichment  of  every  human  personality;  in 
which  the  supreme  motive  shall  be  love ;  wherein  men  shall  co- 
operate in  service  for  the  common  good  and  brotherhood  shall  be 
a  reality  in  all  of  the  daily  relationships  of  life. 

IV. 
We  must,  therefore,  endeavor  to  change  such  unchristian  aspects 
of  our  present  social  order  as  now  hinder  the  spirit  of  fellowship: 
extravagant  luxury  for  some  while  many  live  in  povertj'  and 
want ;  excessive  concentration  of  power  and  privilege  arising  from 
vast  wealth  in  the  hands  of  the  few;  monopoly  of  natural  resources 
for  private  gain ;  autocratic  profit  and  power  i  ather  than  for  social 
use  and  service;  arrogance  and  antagonism  of  classes,  nations  and 
races;  war,  the  final  denial  of  brotherhood. 

V. 
We  believe  that  in  the  spirit  and  principles  of  Jesus  is  found 
the  way  of  overcoming  these  evils  and  that  within  the  Christian 
Church  there  should  be  a  unity  of  purpose  and  endeavor  for  the 
achieving  of  a  Christian  social  order.  By  means  of  fellowship  in 
thought  and  prayer  we  come  to  understand  the  point  of  view  of 
those  who  differ  from  us,  make  possible  new  discoveries  of  truth 
and  aid  one  another  in  the  solution  of  common  problems.     We 


^  Persons  desiring  further  information  concerning  this  movement  should 
write  to  Kirby  Page,  311  Division  Avenue,  Hasbrouck  Heights,  New 
Jersey. 

110 


A  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMIC  ORDER 

believe  that  social  changes  should  be  effected  through  educational 
and  spiritual  processes,  especially  by  an  open-minded  examination 
of  existing  problems  and  suggested  solutions,  full  discussion,  and 
varied  experimentation.  We  pledge  ourselves  to  vigorous  activity 
in  seeking  a  solution,  by  these  means,  of  the  social  problems  which 
we  face. 

In  addition  to  these  movements,  most  of  the  larger  religious 
bodies  have  national  departments  of  social  service,  with  bureaus 
of  information  and  traveling  secretaries. ^  In  addition,  the  Church 
League  for  Industrial  Democracy^  is  doing  effective  work  among 
members  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  There  are  also  several  other 
movements  within  the  churches  working  for  social  righteousness, 
such  as  the  Brotherhood  of  the  Kingdom,  etc. 

Plans  are  now  under  way  for  conducting  in  1924  a  National  Con- 
ference on  the  Meaning  of  Christianity  in  Industrial,  Racial,  and 
International  Relations.  A  similar  conference  is  to  be  held  in 
England.  A  world  conference  on  "Life  and  Work"  is  planned  for 
1924  or  1925. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  pronouncements  of  various  religious 
bodies  are  only  paper  programs,  mere  words,  and  do  not  possess 
any  real  significance.  In  reply,  it  should  be  pointed  out  that  the 
statements  and  activities  of  these  bodies  indicate  a  new  sensitive- 
ness to  the  evils  in  the  present  social  order  and  a  new  determina- 
tion to  overcome  them.  In  past  centuries  an  awakened  conscience 
to  great  evils  and  a  resolute  determination  to  overcome  them  has 
been  the  basis  of  moral  progress.  And  so  it  is  in  our  day.  The 
awakening  within  the  churches  during  the  past  few  decades  with 
regard  to  social  problems  is  of  tremendous  significance  for  the 
moral  progress  of  mankind. 

The  Christians  of  this  generation  should  not  be  dismayed  by 
the  magnitude  of  the  tasks  with  which  they  are  confronted.  The 
attitude  and  spirit  needed  is  that  of  the  Christian  missionary 
facing  the  superstition,  cruelty,  and  antagonism  of  pagan  people, 
or  that  of  a  devoted  physician  seeking  a  cure  for  the  maladies  of 
mankind,  or  that  of  a  scientist  searching  for  truth. 

The  attitude  of  modern  engineers  toward  mechanical  ditSculties 
is  well  known.     Again  and  again  the  "impossible"  has  been  ac- 


1  For  information  concerning  any  of  the  social  service  departments  of 
religious  bodies  write  to  the  Commission  on  the  Church  and  Social  Service 
of  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches,  105  East  22d  Street,  New  York. 

2  The  Secretary  is  the  Rev.  Richard  W.  Hogue,  129  Nippon  Street,  Mt. 
Airy,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Ill 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

complished.  Behind  the  desk  of  one  of  the  great  industrial  leaders 
of  this  country  is  a  small  electric  sign:  "Can't  must  be  over- 
come." At  critical  moments  in  deliberations  with  his  associates 
he  flashes  this  sign.  This  is  the  attitude  we  must  take  toward  the 
problems  of  modern  industry.  In  all  matters  of  human  relations, 
as  well  as  in  mechanical  production,  "Can't  must  be  overcome." 

We  should  not  be  unduly  impressed  by  the  current  scepticism  as 
to  Christianizing  the  economic  order.  This  same  doubt  has  been 
manifested  in  every  age  and  concerning  the  abolition  of  every 
great  evil.  James  Russell  Lowell  once  pointed  out  that  "not  a 
change  for  the  better  in  our  human  housekeeping  has  ever  taken 
place  that  wise  and  good  men  have  not  opposed  it — have  not  proph- 
esied with  the  aldermen  that  the  world  would  wake  up  to  find 
its  throat  cut  in  consequence  of  it."  Concerning  mechanical  in- 
ventions there  have  been  many  sceptics.  In  1877  the  London  Times 
denounced  the  telephone  as  "the  latest  American  humbug."  In 
1834  the  Nczv  York  Evening  Star  said,  "Among  new  inventions 
to  increase  the  pauperism  of  England,  we  observe  a  portable  steam 
threshing  machine." 

It  has  been  said  that  "the  retrospective  vision  of  accomplished 
fact  is  the  most  fantastic  of  all  Utopias.  Compared  to  it  the  tasks 
which  our  limited  vision  can  see  lying  ahead  of  us  are  singularly 
simple." 

2.  How  Rapidly  Can  a  Christian  Economic  Order  Be 
Achieved?  There  are  two  common  attitudes  toward  this  ques- 
tion. First,  there  is  the  attempt  to  revolutionize  the  economic 
order  immediately  and  the  tendency  to  be  impatient  witli  delay. 
Second,  there  is  the  widespread  feeling  that  no  considerable 
progress  in  the  solution  of  economic  problems  can  be  made  in  a 
short  time,  with  the  consequent  tendency  to  regard  proposed  solu- 
tions as  "Utopian." 

An  examination  of  the  records  of  history  reveals  the  fact  that 
many  far-reaching  changes  in  human  affairs  have  taken  place  with 
relatively  great  speed.  In  the  realm  of  knowledge  and  mechanical 
invention  this  is  conspicuously  true.  It  has  been  said  that  "for 
the  material  advancement  of  mankind  the  nineteenth  century  has 
done  more  than  all  preceding  ages  combined."  Not  only  with 
regard  to  inventions  but  also  in  the  realm  of  moral  problems  great 
strides  have  been  made  within  comparatively  short  periods.  During 
a  few  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century,  slavery,  an  institution 
older  than  written  records,  was  almost  entirely  banished  from  the 

112 


A  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMIC  ORDER 

civilized  world.  During  the  last  half  century  another  practice 
that  antedates  written  history,  drunkenness  from  intoxicating 
liquors,  has  been  legally  prohibited  in  America  and  considerable 
progress  has  been  made  toward  its  actual  abolition.  There  is  no 
room  for  doubt  that  under  certain  conditions  marked  speed  may  be 
attained  in  the  solution  of  moral  problems. 

"So  far  from  civilization  being  practically  unchangeable,"  says 
Benjamin  Kidd,  "or  only  changeable  through  influences  operating 
slowly  over  long  periods  of  time,  the  world  can  be  changed  in  a 
brief  space  of  time.  Within  the  life  of  a  single  generation  it  can 
be  made  to  undergo  changes  so  profound,  so  revolutionary,  so  per- 
manent, that  it  would  almost  appear  as  if  human  nature  itself 
had  been  completely  altered  in  the  interval.  If  but  one-half  the 
intelligence  and  effort  which  nations  have  hitherto  directed  towards 
the  collective  organization  of  society  for  war  were  directed  towards 
the  study  and  collective  organization  of  society  in  the  light  of  this 
knowledge,  it  would  result  in  its  becoming  visible  on  all  hands 
that  civilization  can  be  altered  so  radically  and  so  quickly  that 
the  outlook  of  humanity  on  nearly  every  fundamental  matter  can 
be  changed  in  a  single  generation."^ 

It  is  true,  however,  that  the  outstanding  problems  of  the  day 
require  an  educational  basis  for  their  solution.  One  of  the  great 
needs  of  the  present  moment  is  for  a  thorough  application  of  the 
spirit  of  scientific  analysis  in  all  realms  of  modern  industry,  in 
the  sphere  of  human  relations  as  well  as  in  mechanics.  Intensive 
experimentation  and  the  inductive  method  are  sorely  needed.  We 
cannot  hope  to  make  a  correct  diagnosis  of  our  economic  ills  on 
any  other  basis  than  that  of  freedom  of  thought  and  expression 
and  an  open-minded  examination  of  the  facts  in  the  case  and  a 
fair  consideration  of  proposed  solutions. 

It  is  imix)ssible  for  any  one  individual  to  discover  the  whole 
truth  concerning  any  problem  or  solution.  Especially  is  this  true 
in  an  antagonistic  society,  where  the  individual  is  likely  to  be 
influenced  by  strong  prejudices.  It  is  also  impossible  for  any 
class  or  belligerent  group  to  make  a  correct  appraisal  of  anj'^ 
situation.     Passion  and  bitterness  hide  the  truth. 

Therefore,  one  of  the  great  needs  of  the  present  moment  is 
fellowship — intimate  acquaintance,  a  sharing  of  thought  and  ex- 
perience, mutual  outpouring  and  ingathering,  a  common  search  for 
truth,  a  mutual  desire  to  serve,  and  cooperation  in  the  common 

'Benjamin  Kidd,  "The  Science  of  Power,"  pp.   112,  113. 

113 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

task  of  achieving  a  Cliristian  economic  order.  Fellowship  in 
industry  can  best  be  promoted  by  seeking  to  place  industry  on  a 
basis  of  production  for  use  and  by  intensive  experiments  vi^ith 
various  types  of  cooperation  in  industry. 

This  is  a  period  of  unsurpassed  opportunity  for  Christian 
people.  The  whole  world  is  in  convulsion.  Age-long  institutions 
and  practices  are  crumbling.  "The  old  order  changeth,"  says 
Woodrow  Wilson,  "changeth  under  our  very  eyes,  not  quietly  and 
equably,  but  swiftly  and  with  the  noise  and  heat  and  tumult  of 
reconctruction.  We  are  in  a  temper  to  reconstruct  economic 
society,  as  we  were  once  in  a  temper  to  reconstruct  political  so- 
ciety, and  political  society  may  itself  undergo  a  radical  modifica- 
tion in  the  process."  , 

During  the  nineteenth  century  we  achieved  the  physical  basis 
of  the  good  life  for  all  the  people,  and  it  now  seems  possible  to 
raise  the  general  standard  of  living  in  the  United  States  very  con- 
siderably during  the  next  few  decades.  Is  it  too  much  to  believe 
that  during  the  twentieth  century  we  shall  be  able  to  establish  a 
Christian  economic  order,  in  which  abundant  life  will  be  within 
the  reach  of  all,  and  every  human  being  will  have  opportunity  for 
complete  self -development  and  self-expression? 


SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THOUGHT  AND  DISCUSSION 

I.     Is  A  Christian  Economic  Order  Pk.\cticable ? 

1.  Many  persons  say  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  conduct  modern 
industry  on  the  basis  of  the  spirit  of  Jesus.  What  are  the 
considerations  for  and  against  this  position? 

2.  Read  the  Social  Statements  of  the  Protestants,  Catholics, 
and  Jews.  What  do  these  indicate  as  to  the  belief  of  these 
bodies  as  to  the  possibilities  of  a  Christian  economic  order? 
What  are  the  common  points  of  emphasis?  What,  if  any, 
distinctive  emphases  do  you  find  ? 

3.  What  other  evidences  of  social  conscience  and  aspiration 
among  Christians? 

4.  Do  you  consider  such  statements  merely  paper  documents 
or  real  evidences  of  progress?     Why? 

5.  Upon  the  whole,  does  a  Christian  economic  order  seem  to 
you  practicable  of  attainment? 

114 


A  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMIC  ORDER 

II.     How    Rapidly    Can    a    Christian    Economic    Order    Be 
Achieved? 

1.  With  which  of  the  two  following  common  attitudes  do  you 
find  yourself  in  agreement?    Why? 

a.  The  economic  order  must  be  revolutionized  immediately. 

b.  No  considerable  progress  in  the  solution  of  economic 
problems  can  be  made  in  a  short  time,  and  proposed  quick 
solutions  are  likely  to  be  "Utopian." 

2.  What  is  the  evidence  for  and  against  speedy  progress  in  the 
achievement  of  a  Christian  economic  order? 

3.  What   are   the   things    immediately   practicable    toward    this 
end? 

4.  How  rapidly  can  a  Christian  economic  order  be  achieved? 


115 


Index 

PAGE 

Accidents     57,  92 

Amalgamated  Clothing  Workers  88 

American  Federation  of  Labor   98 

Antagonism    4,  60 

Astor,  J.  J 30 

Autocracy     35 

Beecher,  H.  W 12 

British  Coal  Commission   97 

Carlyle     11 

Carnegie,    A 31 ,34,  36 

Catholic,  National  War  Council  106 

Central  Conference  of  American  Rabbis  107 

Child  Labor   10 

Christian  Economic  Order   101  ff 

Churches     1,  5,  104  fif 

Church  League  for  Individual  Democracy   Ill 

Class  Codes    60 

Coal  Mines     97 

Colorado  Fuel  &  Iron  Co 86 

Commercial  Failures   70 

Commission  on  Industrial  Relations  9,  14,  26,  59 

Commons,  J.  R 80 

Compensation  Laws    92 

Competition    4, 60,  71 

Concentration     59 

Consumers    90 

Control    84  ff 

Cooperation    T(> 

Cooperative  Movement   90 

Cost  of  Living   24, 25, 41 

Crime     1 1 

Decreasing  Independence   58 

Democracy    35,  37,  81,  86,  87 

117 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

PAGE 

Dennison,  H 78 

Dodge,  W.  E 57 

duPont  Co 31 

Dutchess  Bleachery  87 

Efficiency .35, 48,  76,  81 

Eliot,  Ex-President ^^ 

Employes'  Representation    86 

Evans,  E.  W 42 

Family     10, 62 

Fatigue    58 

Federated  Council  of  Churches    104 

Fellowship  for  a  Christian  Social  Order  110 

Fellowship  of  Reconciliation  108 

Filene,  Wm.   Co 86 

Friday,  D 70,  74 

Gantt,  H.  L 67 

Gary,  E.  H 85 

George,  Lloyd   1 

Great  Fortunes    29  ff,  46 

Greece    49 

Greeley,  H 11 

Hadley,  Ex- President   45 

Harding,  President    17 

Hart.  Schaffner  &  Marx   88 

Health     57,  77, 92, 96 

Hoffman,  F.  L 57 

Hoover,  H 78 

Hoover's  Committee    19, 67,  77 

Housing    63 

Human  Costs  57  ff 

Hutton,  John  A 3 

Ignorance    10,  35,  66,  77,  102 

Incentives     61, 67, 68,  71,  75, 103 

Incomes  22,  31, 43, 46,  50 

Income  Tax   98 

Inefficiency     11, 48, 67,  77 

Inheritance   Tax    99 

118 


INDEX 

PAGE 

Insurance    80,  96,  97 

Interstate  Commerce  Committee   95 

Jesus    : 6,  8, 12.  33,  37,  SO,  62, 101, 102 

Jewish  Rabbis   107 

Kidd,  Benjamin    2, 1 13 

Laissez  faire    60, 94 

Labor-saving  Devices    55  ff 

Lowell,  J.  R 112 

Luxuries    41  fif ,  66 

Machinery     54 

Mack,  W.  J 79 

Minimum  Wage   93 

Monotony    58 

Moral  Losses  61 

Mothers     10 

National  Building  Guild  89 

National  Catholic  War  Council   106 

National    Income    23, 43,  65 

National  Industrial  Conference  Board  24, 41 

Old  Age    14 

Owners    85 

Paley    8 

Paternalism    36,  37,  38 

Plumb  Plan    98 

Poverty    5,  7  ff,  17  ff,  26 

Production    54, 65,  74,  84 

Production  for  Use  71,  74,  76,  84 

Profit   Motive    61,  67,  69 

Progress    103 

Public   Ownership    95, 97 

Railroad  Labor  Board    95 

Railways     97 

Reed,  T.  T 56 

Regularization    78 

119 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ECONOMIC  PROBLEMS 

PAGE 

Research    76 

Rockefeller  Foundation    34 

Rowntree,   S 78, 97 

Sabotage     66 

Sankey,  Justice   98 

Secretary  of  Treasury    47 

Security     13, 69 

Selley,  E 89 

Sickness    9,  14 

Slaves    49 

Smithsonian   Institute    56 

Social  Ideals  of  the  Churches 104 

Spiritual  Losses    61 

Standard  Oil  Co 30 

State   Control     91, 92 

Stockholders     85 

Taxation     98 

Transportation     56 

Unemployable    15 

Unemployment     19,  58, 69,  78 

Unemployment    Insurance    80, 96 

United  Mine  Workers    98 

United  States  Steel  Corporation   31, 86 

Wages    18  fif,  26 

War     61 

War-time  Production    74 

Wealth     29, 46 

Wells,  H.  G 2,2> 

Wilber force    8 

Wilson,  W 2>7, 114 

Withers,  H 45 

Women    21 

Workers'  Control   87 


120 


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